


Nightmares and the Multiverse

by whitebox_yellowbox



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Blow Jobs, Deadpool from another universe, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Multiverse, Peter Parker must be protected, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Rimming, Slow Burn, Spideypool - Freeform, Spoilers, The Tesseract (Marvel), Tony too, Wade Wilson will for sure do that, but it gets better, events of Infinity War happen in a different universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-05-02 20:39:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14553096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitebox_yellowbox/pseuds/whitebox_yellowbox
Summary: MAJOR Infinity War Spoilers AheadTony Stark and Wade Wilson dream of Peter's death at the hands of Thanos, and make it their mission to ensure that nothing happens to their favorite Web-Slinger.





	1. There was an idea...

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I'm finally doing this. Not my first fic, but my first on AO3, and my first Marvel fic. I really don't know what to expect, but I hope you enjoy!
> 
> white box is in bold, yellow box is in italics

“I don’t wanna go Mr. Stark, I don’t wanna go. I’m sorry.” Tony wakes up abruptly, gasping for air and feeling his skin coated in a cold sweat. He panics, and feels tears drying on his face. It’s 4 in the morning and he reaches over to grab his cellphone off the table next to his bed, unlocking it and going to his contacts. His thumb hovers over the call icon under Peter’s name.

Tony sucks in a quivering breath before pressing it and bringing the phone up to his ear. It barely rings 2 times before Peter’s worried voice comes over the line.

“Mr. Stark? Is something going on? I can be ready in 2 minutes.” Tony lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“No, nothing’s going on, kid. Sorry to wake you.” Tony slides out of bed and goes to the bathroom, looking at his disheveled reflection in the mirror and brushing a hand through his hair. “You busy tomorrow?”

“I mean I have school until 2:45 but then I’m free, if you have a mission for me or something.” Peter’s voice takes on a tone of excitement at the possibility of an opportunity to prove himself to the Avengers. Peter’s barrage of texts to Happy concerning “missions” for the past few months have been a bit of a running joke in the Avengers compound. Rhodes thought it was hilarious how eager Peter was to get himself involved in Avengers business, and Natasha was always trying to get Tony to bring Peter along on the small, easy missions, for “practice and bonding time.”

“I’ll send Happy to pick you up from school and bring you to the compound. I’ll brief you when you get here.” Here. Instead of sleeping at home, like a normal person who owned a home let alone a mansion, Tony had been sleeping in the Avengers compound. Ever since Steve left him for Bucky, he’s had trouble sleeping in the bed they had once shared. However, he wouldn’t admit that to anyone: his excuse was “to be ready at all times” or “the mansion is too big” or whatever lame reason suited him that day.

Seeing Steve with Bucky was always enough to break his heart again. Where there was once love, there was now resentment, bitterness, jealousy. Tony had thrown himself into his work to avoid having to deal with those emotions, but couldn’t get past them, no matter how much success he was having with the nanotechnology going into Mark 47, or how much progress he had made on the Iron Spider suit.

“Awesome!” Tony snapped out of his thoughts with the cheerful voice coming from his phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Da-” Peter clears his throat. “Mr. Stark.”

Tony doesn’t miss Peter’s slip-up, but he doesn’t mention it either. Peter seems to be waiting for a goodbye, seemingly refusing to hang up first. “See ya, kid.” Tony ends the call and sets the phone down, heading to his minibar and pouring himself a drink.

 

* * *

 

 

Wade shoots up straight in bed, the image of Spider-Man fading away into ashes burned into his mind. Even though Wade has never had the chance to actually interact with the hero, he still idolizes him, and has a poster of him on his wall. Watching him sob as he is ripped from the hands of Iron Man was enough to shake Wade to his very core. He fights the urge to pick up a gun and act on his sudden impulse to be unalived. His head hurts, and he thinks its an emotional hurt.

**Would you look at that? The big guy’s got emotions after all.**

_Hey now, he’s hurting inside, maybe lay off for a second while he sorts himself out?_

**Now that’s something I thought I’d never live to see. You’re defending this sick buffoon?**

“Shut up!” Wade stands up and puts on his suit while the boxes continue to argue. He doesn’t know what his plan is. Go out and search for the man who he watched die in a nightmare and then what? Spider-Man has never even spoken to Deadpool, and Wade doesn’t think that if he approached the man in question sobbing and praising the lord that he’s still alive, it will encourage a friendship.

Either way, he finds himself climbing out of his window and onto the fire escape with the intention of searching for his favorite spandex-clad, goody-two-shoes, spider-themed superhero.

**And exactly how many spandex-clad, goody-two-shoes, spider-themed superheroes do you know of that you could compare him to?**

_My guess would be at least 6._

Deadpool ignores the chatter in his head and instead heads towards Queens, hoping that if Spider-Man is MIA tonight, at least he can hit up that taco truck that he likes.

He roams the city for a couple of hours before the sun starts coming up. Wade figures he must’ve missed Spidey tonight and decides to head home. After stopping for some tacos first, Deadpool’s a couple blocks from his apartment when he hears what seems to be a mugging. He peers around the corner into an alley where he sees two men wearing animal masks and robbing a sweet little old lady, which must just be the worst thing he could ever imagine ever. Oldies shouldn’t have to be the victims of muggings, they’ve already surrendered all of their good assets to gravity and time, so goddamn it, let them keep their tacky coral blue purses and their World War 2 era watches!

Deadpool’s about ready to intervene when he sees a flash of red and blue drop down into the alley. “Whoa, hey, are you guys furries? The furry convention isn’t until next week!” Spider-Man webs the knife out of Mr. Fox’s hand, and kicks Mr. Bear in the head. Before Deadpool can even process it, he’s knocked out both of the muggers and webbed them up together, writing a note for the police and shaking the old lady’s hand as she’s thanking him profusely.

And then he’s shooting a web up into the night sky, ready to swing away, right out of Wade’s reach.

“Hey, Spidey!”

In a moment, Deadpool is suddenly webbed to a streetlight and Spider-Man is approaching him carefully.

“We’re going a little fast, don’t you think?” Deadpool asks, mocking a serious tone. “We should keep the kinky stuff for when our marriage starts falling apart and we need a catharsis to distract us from the boring routine we’ve settled into, am I right?”

**Smooth.**

_Okay, seriously, what._

Spider-Man looks utterly shocked, but seems to ignore the comment otherwise. “Um, who are you? Are you supposed to be dressed like me?”

Deadpool feigns offense (kind of) and gasps. “Come on, Deadpool?” Spider-Man shows no recognition. “The Merc With a Mouth?” Still no reaction. “Come on! I had my own movie for Christ’s sake! Starring God’s perfect idiot, Ryan Reynolds?” Spider-Man shrugs, and Deadpool only groans in frustration. “I know who you are! You’re my favorite Avenger!”

“Technically, I’m not an Avenger.”

It hits Deadpool that Spider-Man’s voice sounds… young. Like, a teenager. He’s now glad he didn’t open with “nice ass” but the comment about marriage still seems entirely inappropriate. Deadpool frowns and wonders how old the kid is, hoping he’s at least legal.

**Good job on totally crushing on a 12 year-old, pervert.**

_I actually gotta agree on this one, that’s a little distasteful, even for you._

“Not yet at least. That could change soon.” Wade could almost see Spider-Man’s smile through his mask. At least he could relate to Spidey’s obvious desire to be an Avenger. Although Deadpool’s definitely got a much lower chance of becoming one of the band than the arachnid kid has.

“Well I’m sure they’ll be sending you an e-vite any day now, Spidey, don’t you worry.”

Spider-Man looks hopeful for a moment before turning to look at the sky that was gradually brightening. “Crap, I’ve gotta go get ready for school!” He looks back down at Deadpool before lowering his voice and blurting out, “I, I mean, get my kids ready for school!”

Spider-Man webs to the nearest building and swings away silently. Deadpool looks down at the webbing encapsulating him before pulling a knife from his thigh holster and cutting himself free. He walks over to the muggers and kicks one in the head just for the fun of it before looking at the note Spider-Man left.

“Tried to rob an old lady, and were unfashionably early to furry con. - Spider-Man”

 

* * *

 

Peter felt exhausted, and was contemplating taking a nap at lunch instead of eating. He was beginning to regret going on patrol so late last night, but he simply couldn’t get back to sleep after Mr. Stark’s phone call. Ned made sure to point out the bags under Peter’s eyes, earning a glare from Michelle, who seems to have perpetual eye bags.

Peter explained to Ned that he couldn’t sleep last night because Stark was potentially offering a “promotion.” Euphemism went straight over Ned’s head, so Peter had to privately explain that by “promotion” he meant that he was finally getting a mission, and he gushed about how he was excited to be at the compound again, while also giving Ned a verbal blueprint of the place.

When school ended, he waited in the parking lot for Happy’s Audi to roll up. He tried to picture what he’d be doing at the compound. Would he be going on a mission to stop some Bad Guys? Maybe training with Black Widow? Learning something totally awesome from Dr. Banner? Or just hanging out with any Avenger? It all sounded so tempting and cool. Peter could hardly sit still on the ride upstate, just imagining all the possibilities that were ahead of him.

As they pulled into the long, twisty driveway, Peter immediately started scanning the planes of impossibly green grass for people training outdoors, and looked up at the windows of the building to see Mr. Stark looking out the window at the car. For a brief moment he thought about waving at him, but thought it would maybe be awkward. Like what if Mr. Stark didn’t see it? Or what if he did, but didn’t wave back? Was Peter nervous? Maybe a little.

Once indoors, Peter threw his backpack down on a chair and looked around the high-ceilinged room for Mr. Stark, who was getting off the elevator, with his hands behind his back. Even though he had only been at the compound a couple of times, he was very comfortable here. Maybe it was the fact that so many other superheroes had practically made this place their home that made Peter feel relaxed when he was standing on the immaculate tiles, surrounded by potted plants, photographs of different Avengers memorabilia, and expansive empty space.

Mr. Stark made his way over to Peter, his shoes clicking against the ridiculously clean floor, seriously Peter could see his reflection in it. Did he always look this goofy and giddy? Peter smiled widely at him before asking, “So what’s the mission?”

Mr. Stark revealed a manila envelope from behind his back. He placed them on the table near Peter and slid them towards him. Peter opened the envelope hastily and skimmed over the pages. His eyebrows were pulled together in confusion.

“I’m confused, Mr. Stark, what is this?”

“Adoption papers. I want to adopt you, Peter.”


	2. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark loves his son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning -- Mention of Suicide

Tony, Peter, and May sat at May’s living room table, finishing up the last signatures on the adoption papers. Tony looked around the quaint room while discussing Peter’s living situations with May. They had agreed that Peter should stay in Queens with May during the week because of school, but that he would stay with Tony at the Avengers compound on the weekends. During the summer they would have to plan out a new schedule. Tony insisted that he would send May $10,000 each week, in part to put them up in a better apartment, but also because Tony didn’t really understand that normal people don’t even make that much in a month, and he was really just guessing how much money would be reasonable. He originally had said $50,000, and May just about passed out. Both Peter and May vehemently refused that number, to which Tony had chuckled and insisted on $25,000. It took about an hour to argue it down to $10,000, and at that point Peter and May had been drained of their ability to fight Tony.

“Okay, you’re officially Peter Benjamin Parker-Stark.” Tony’s lawyer collected the finished papers into a leather messenger bag, and standing up to get his items together to leave.

“Are you sure you don’t like ‘Stark-Parker’ better? Last chance.”

Peter looks like he’s afraid to say the wrong thing, so May steps in, “We’ve got to preserve the alliteration, Tony.” She smiles sweetly, and walks to the door with Tony’s lawyer, thanking him and letting him out. She returns and asks Tony if he’d like some of her walnut and date loaf.

“Oh, I’d love to, but I’m just so full from my lunch. Thank you very much, May.” Tony smiles politely but turns to Peter and feigns a gag when May leaves the room. Peter giggles and it makes Tony’s heart swell. The smile on his son’s face is such a welcome sight, but it fades when May reenters the room carrying a duffle bag and a photo album.

“You’ve got to see some baby photos of Peter, they’re absolutely precious.” Peter groans and puts his head in his hands as she sits down at the table next to Tony, opening up the album and pointing at various photographs of Peter as a kid, which are every bit as adorable as promised. Tony’s favorite photo is of Peter at age 7 dressed up as Iron Man for Halloween. Peter’s face flushes when he sees Tony taking a photo of it on his phone, but Tony doesn’t miss the small smile on his face throughout the whole experience.

It’s a Friday night, meaning Peter would be coming back to the compound with Tony tonight, so May hands Peter’s duffle bag to him and gives him a big hug. “Have fun Peter, and don’t forget to do your homework. Don’t stay up too late, and try not to drive Mr. Stark crazy.”

“Well I think that’s simply unavoidable.” Tony smirks and Peter groans before saying goodbye to May and taking his bag out to Tony’s car. Once Peter is gone, Tony takes May’s hand in his. “Thank you for this, May. I will make sure Peter is comfortable and well-fed and well-rested and he does his homework—”

May cuts him off with a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I know you’ll take great care of my nephew. And Peter is really excited to get to spend more time with you. He’s been talking about it all week. He really looks up to you, you know that, right?”

Tony smiles and nods, giving May a quick hug before heading to the car, where Peter is talking on the phone and grinning widely.

“Yeah, yeah, Ned I gotta go, yes he’s right here— no I’m not gonna tell him you said that! Ned! Yeah, I’ll see you on Monday, bye.” Peter hangs up the phone and shoves it into his pocket quickly. Tony decides not to comment. He unlocks the car and Peter hesitantly gets in the front seat, as if he’s testing whether or not he’s even allowed to.

Before they can even pull out of the driveway, May is running to the car, knocking on Peter’s window. He rolls it down and she shoves a Tupperware full of her walnut and date loaf into Peter’s hands. Peter makes a face at Tony and Tony laughs, thanking May again and waving goodbye.

Once they get to the compound, Tony takes Peter up to his room. He helps Peter move some of his things in—puts his homework on the desk, and makes sure Peter is all settled in before he gets ready to go to his own room.

“If you need anything in the night, tell Friday to wake me up. Tomorrow the Avengers are having a little get-together to welcome you, so you might wanna wear something other than one of your t-shirts with puns on them. Just a suggestion.”

Peter smirks but then his expression becomes softer. “Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

“Tony is fine, Peter. Goodnight.” Tony leaves the room and goes to his own, getting ready for bed and setting an alarm for 7 AM. He was planning on making breakfast—or attempting to, which was a rare occasion, but he figured that Peter would appreciate some waffles in the morning.

Tony slept for 2 hours before he was awakened by the all-too-familiar sound of Peter sobbing, “I don’t wanna go, Mr. Stark.” When he blinks his eyes open, the room is silent and dark, and the alarm clock says 1:42. He gets out of bed and tip-toes to Peter’s door, which slides open, revealing Peter wrapped up in a fluffy comforter, sleeping peacefully on his too-big bed. Tony relaxes at the sight, seeing the covers rise and fall with Peter’s breathing. He enters the room, as if possessed, and stands over the bed, examining Peter’s innocent face.

Tony knows he should just go back to his room, but he finds himself lying down next to Peter on the bed, and wrapping an arm around him. ‘5 minutes,’ he thinks, ‘and then I’ll go back to bed.’ What Tony doesn’t know, is that holding Peter in his arms is one of the most therapeutic experiences he has ever felt, and it lulls him to sleep within the first minute.

What Tony doesn’t know is that Peter wakes, glances at Tony, and smiles before falling back to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

Wade falls asleep watching reruns of Golden Girls but wakes up to the nightmare he knows he’s seen before. He knows it won’t help, but he finds himself holding a gun up to the side of his head.

**Do it.**

He wants to. He cocks it and closes his eyes, exhaling deeply. His finger rests on the trigger.

_What would Spidey do?_

What would Spidey do? Not this. Wade gets off the couch, slipping his gun back into the holster. The persistent sirens outside offer Deadpool the distraction he needs. He ducks through the window and finds himself following the sirens into the heart of New York City at 2 AM.

 

* * *

 

 

Peter sat on the edge of an apartment building, looking out at the city he loved. He couldn’t believe it had been 2 whole years since Tony adopted him. Those 2 years had been amazing. He had become so much closer with all of the Avengers due to the fact that he was at the compound every weekend and all summer. He still got to see May a lot, and their constant stream of Stark’s money meant that May was able to retire, giving her more time to spend with Peter, and make new friends. She was currently volunteering at the library and had made a bunch of friends who would come over for book club. Although Peter was happy that May had so many friends, they annoyed the crap out of him. Whenever they were over, he made any excuse he could to leave. Which meant that he could patrol as Spider-Man without the guilt of leaving May by herself. He loved to swing through the city at all times of the day, and feel air whipping past him. When he decided he needed a break, he’d find himself sitting on the roof of some building, eating Mexican food with one Deadpool.

So that was the situation he was in currently, mask rolled up his nose, taking a bite from a particularly lettuce-y taco, sitting next to the Merc with a Mouth.

“And then I smacked him right in the buns! He hated that, it totally emasculated him or something, so he just decked me right in the face with his metal arm. Hurt like a bitch and knocked out a few pearly whites, but I only cried for 7 minutes.”

“Wow,” Peter murmurs sarcastically. “Sounds like you’re tough enough for the Salty Spitoon.”

“Right?” Deadpool bites into a chimichanga and continues talking, regardless of the food flying from his mouth. “And then Captain America stepped in and calmed metal arm guy down, but when I asked him if I could be on the Avengers, he just kind of brushed me off. So fuck that guy, I guess. Although I would totally and legitimately fuck him if given the opportunity. What about you, Spidey?” Deadpool turns to look at Peter, and Peter can’t help but stare at the scars on his face. They don’t surprise him or gross him out anymore, but he always wonders if they’re painful. He wishes he could reach out and touch them, but he thinks that would be weird or rude.

“Oh, no, definitely not. He and Tony had a thing, and it didn’t end amicably. The whole ‘civil war’ thing really put a damper on their relationship. Also Cap just totally abandoned Tony. I don’t wanna be mad at him, but I can’t really help it.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Deadpool finishes his food and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “But it was a very good movie, very tense.”

Peter has no idea what Deadpool’s talking about but he kind of has just learned to ignore those kinds of comments from him. “Maybe the Avengers would be more willing to let you join them if you weren’t so flippant about taking lives.” There’s no malice in the statement. Peter has had too many arguments with Deadpool about changing to think there’s actually a chance that he will listen to him anymore. He’s resigned to the way Deadpool operates, although deep down, there is a part of him that just wishes Deadpool would change, if not for himself, then maybe to be an Avenger.

“Well, what about you? You don’t kill anyone, but they still haven’t given you the VIP pass yet. I’m starting to think we’ll have to report Stark to HR for discrimination.” Deadpool balls up his wrappers and throws them as hard as he can off the side of the building. A gust of wind blows the ball right back into his face, making him squeak.

Peter giggles at the display in front of him, which causes Deadpool to freeze, for whatever reason. “Tony keeps saying that I need to ‘stay close to the ground’ or whatever. But he’s been telling me that for the last two years! I’m not a kid anymore, I can handle it.”

“You tellin’ me you’re legal?” Deadpool raises one eyebrow and Peter groans.

“I’m saying that I can take it.” At Deadpool’s reaction, Peter stammers, “The responsibility, being an Avenger! I can deal with the big, bad guys now.”

“I’ve got something big and bad you can deal with.” Peter groans even louder and chucks lettuce at Deadpool before standing up and dusting himself off.

“You are just the worst, Deadpool.” Peter shoots a web at a building in the distance while Deadpool just cackles and wipes lettuce from his mask.

“Wade. And I know you love me, baby boy.” Peter swings away from Deadpool—or Wade— and starts to wonder if he should’ve just stayed at the book club meeting tonight.

 

* * *

 

“What do you need an apartment for?” Tony’s hardly paying attention to Peter as he uses a blow torch to fix a small crack in his suit. Dum-E is at the ready with a fire extinguisher, and Tony side-eyes the robotic arm.

“Um, I don’t know, I just—” Peter clears his throat. “You know, just in case.”

Tony looks confused and unconvinced. Sam gets up from the chair he’s lounging in and comes to stand behind Peter, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I think what Peter’s trying to say is that he needs a safe place away from his dad, where he can hook up with chicks.”

“Yeah, exact— wait, what?! Sam!” Peter’s face goes beet red and Sam ducks away from the hand Peter swipes at him with, laughing his ass off at Peter’s embarrassment. “Go away!”

“If that’s the case, Peter, I’d be happy to get you your own apartment.” Tony doesn’t even look up from his work. “Friday, find an apartment in Queens, 1 bed, 1 bath.”

“Yes, sir, I’ve found 56 apartments within these parameters, showing you now.”

Tony swivels over to his computer, expanding the holographic images, and swiping some away.

Peter just flushes. “You know, that’s really not why I want an apartment.”

“It’s okay, Peter, I understand. You wouldn’t believe how many times my parents caught me in the act when I was your age.” Tony’s eyes are still focused on the screen in front of him, not even noticing the hue or heat of Peter’s face. “Oh, this one’s perfect. Friday call the landlord for me.” Tony picks up his bluetooth, inserting it into his ear and exiting the room.

Peter just stands there, gaping, wondering what he did to deserve this. Dum-E moves over to Peter, points the fire extinguisher at him, and without warning, sprays foam directly at his face. Peter shrieks and bounds away.

 

* * *

 

Weeks later, Tony is helping Peter move into his new apartment. Boxes fill most of the empty space in the living room area. The apartment is relatively small, which Peter thinks was most likely for Peter’s benefit. Tony knows that Peter doesn’t like it when he spends a lot of money on him. Peter had even tried to convince Tony to let Peter pay for it, that he would get a job and be more independent, but Tony didn’t even really give Peter a choice. Tony’s name was on the lease, and he had a key.

They had an argument on the way over about it, and Tony hadn’t said a word to Peter since they got out of the car. He’s sitting on Peter’s bed, which had no sheets or covers on it, silently folding Peter’s clothes. Peter is still a little irritated, but the solemn look on Tony’s face made Peter feel a little guilty. He sits down on the bed next to Tony and hugs him tightly.

“Thank you for everything you do for me. I’m sorry for being hard-headed. I know you just want to take care of me and make my life easier, but at some point I’m going to have to start acting and living like an adult.” Peter rests his head on Tony’s shoulder. “Even if you don’t wanna think about it, you know I’m right.”

After a moment, Tony wraps one arm around Peter, and lets his chin rest on top of Peter’s head. Peter enjoys the tenderness of the moment until he hears the fire escape creak. He gets up and goes to the window to investigate. Peter flings the window open and his nostrils flare at the sight of Deadpool sitting on his fire escape.

“Wade?” What are you doing here?!”

“Happy housewarming, baby boy!” Wade squeezes himself into the window and falls face first onto the floor of Peter’s bedroom.

“Deadpool.” Tony’s voice is stern, and Wade’s head whips around to look at him. Tony’s face is, well, terrifying. He looks about ready to tear Wade apart for intruding in his son’s brand new apartment.

“Wow, what are you doing here, tin man? Is this the new Avengers facility?” Wade starts getting up up to his feet. Peter has so many questions; how did Wade know where he lived? And what he looks like? Why is he here? And why did it have to be when Tony’s here?! His spidey-senses are screaming, and he doesn’t understand why. They never do around Wade. “It’s a bit… small, for your tastes especially.”

Once Wade gets to his feet, he immediately pulls a gun on Tony, pointing it right at his head. Peter gasps and all of the muscles in his body go rigid. He glances over at Tony, who doesn’t even look surprised. Like he was expecting Deadpool to do this all along.

Peter, for one, was not. “Wade, why are you doing this?” His voice shakes, and he can feel tears forming and clouding his vision. At the sound of his voice, Tony and Wade both falter, their intense stances and faces softening, before straightening again.

Wade doesn’t move the gun, but he looks at Peter. “Baby boy, you’re coming with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes. 
> 
> Please leave me a comment or message me on Tumblr (king-emmakate)
> 
> Thanks :)


	3. Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deadpool is an idiot, and enter Dr. Strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda violence? sort of? I mean yes it is violence but if y'all have seen Deadpool, you're basically a violence pro at this point so this is just baby stuff (but no babies were harmed in the making of this)

Wade really hates pigeons.

 

He’s sitting on some roof in Queens, wondering when Spidey will show up. Another pigeon tries to eat fries from the greasy bag on the ledge next to him, and in his head he decides its name is Edison. He pulls a gun on Edison and it flies away. He doesn’t reach for the fries, however. He doesn’t really want them, but he definitely won’t give the satisfaction to a damn pigeon.

 

Wade starts to think Spidey won’t be dropping in tonight, but he resigns himself to sitting out in the cool air, letting the sounds and sights of New York City keep him awake. As long as he’s awake, he’s not watching Spider-Man die. It didn’t happen every night, but there was never any way to predict when the image would creep into his dreams.

 

The only good thing about the dream is that it motivated Wade to finally speak to the man in question.

 

_Well, technically he wasn’t a man at the time, he was a kid._

 

**It’s not like it really matters to him, he’s disturbed. He’d probably fuck anything that looked at him wrong.**

 

“I wouldn’t fuck the kid, I’m not an absolute piece of shit. I mean I’m at least half a turd but I’m not the whole thing. It was pinched off before it could all come out, you know?” Wade says back to the boxes. He tries really hard not to talk to them in front of Spider-Man. For some reason, he thinks Spidey would not appreciate that shining addition to Wade’s already glittering personality. But he’s accidentally let it slip out a couple of times. Other than the times he thought Wade was speaking to him, Spidey’s either not noticed or just not commented on it, which Wade greatly appreciated. “Besides, it’s not like the guy is trying to get in my pants or anything.”

 

**You’re right, he’s way too cute for you.**

 

“I don’t even know if he looks like he does in the dream, maybe it’s just my brain making up a perfect face to make it hurt more. Maybe it’s just my perfect fantasy Spidey, I wouldn’t know.” Wade remembers the deep brown eyes, the shiny brown hair, the pink lips, the smooth skin. Skin that was free of any marks, scars, blemishes, or flaws. Absolutely perfect. Wade was suddenly very grateful for his suit and mask.

 

_Maybe he’ll fall for your amazing personality. Or he’ll just want some mutant dick._

 

**Something makes me think that even if he was into guys, which he probably isn’t, just based on probabilities, he still would never be into you.**

 

_I’m guessing that it’s not because of his charming good looks?_

 

**Or his good morals.**

 

“Hey, I haven’t unalived anyone for like a month. I’m working on it, cut me some slack.” Wade sighs and kicks the bag of fries off the ledge. “And I wouldn’t be so quick to label Spidey as heterosexual, don’t you see what website this is?”

 

At that moment, Wade sees a bright light emitting from the alley beneath him. He looks down and sees some kind of… portal? He doesn’t really know what it is, but he chalks it up to lazy narrating. The portal closes as a figure steps out of it, and on closer inspection, it looks like a guy in a Deadpool suit. The mystery man looks down at a device in his hand and takes off running out of the alley and down the street. Wade does his best to trail the guy without getting caught. The man stops in front of an apartment building, checking his device again and then putting it away. He goes to the alley next to the building and starts climbing the fire escape, stopping at one window that is illuminated and peering in. Wade tries to get in a position where he can see into the apartment, but is at the wrong angle. The man enters the apartment through the window, and Wade considers his options before deciding to try sneaking in a different window. Once locating a good target, he climbs precariously up the side of the building, gripping onto ledges and the water spout on the way up. He gets to the window and opens the latch with a knife before crawling into the window silently.

 

“Wade, please, I don’t know what’s going on, but please. Put the gun down.” Wade wasn’t even holding his gun. He looks around and sees the back of the man dressed as Deadpool. He silently maneuvers around the apartment, trying to see into the room the voice came from. He gets a peek at a face. Just a glance, but the tears and the agony shadowed across the face brought Wade back to the dream. A dry planet, orange light, like a sunset. Tony Stark, holding the boy that Wade realizes he must have began to love. He doesn’t know when, or how. But that face, it was of the person who held all of Wade, even if Wade would never hold any of him. All those nights together in the biting air of New York City, sharing a laugh and maybe even a hot dog. It was one of those nights that Wade started to fall for him. One of those nights when that red mask was rolled up enough to expose that smile, one of those nights when he laughed at one of Wade’s bad jokes like it was the greatest thing he’s ever heard. One of those nights was Wade’s tipping point, down a slippery slope. It was dangerous, this new desire to see that face lit with laughter. But it was absolute bliss, and every new minute he got to spend with that smile, with that face, even when hidden behind a mask, was the best minute in his life. It suddenly occurred to Wade that he would do just about anything to wipe the pain from that face. That face, the one that had faded away, crumbled away like it was too fragile, like it was made to burn.

 

That face was the face of Spider-Man.

 

* * *

 

“No, listen to me, Peter. You’re coming back with me. Okay? Don’t do this, all the waterworks. You’re not gonna get hurt, and I won’t shoot Stark unless you give me a reason.” Deadpool twitches, something is clearly very wrong with him.

 

“Where do you plan on taking him?” Tony says calmly, hoping Deadpool can be pacified by his voice, even a little bit.

 

Deadpool lets out a dry laugh, and Peter almost flinches. If only Tony had finished the nanotech. If he had finished it, he could have taken Deadpool out by now, and Peter wouldn’t be shivering with fear next to him. He had been working on it for so long, but had been focusing on it less and less in favor of spending time with Peter. If only he had finished, with a single command, Peter and Tony would both be encapsulated in their suits, and Deadpool wouldn’t even be a threat. Tony suddenly regretted all of the times he decided to take a break from his work to go see a movie with Peter, or take him to Coney Island, or just chat with him. Because that bonding time was gonna mean jack shit if one or both of them were dead. He wished he would’ve just focused on his work, because it was definitely biting him in the ass right about now.

 

“Is this the part where I tell you my diabolical plan, Stark?” For a moment, it seems as if Deadpool will not reveal his intentions, but of course, the Merc with a Mouth can’t seem to keep it shut. “I’m not from your Earth. On my Earth,” he looks over to Peter. “You were killed. By Thanos.” He says the last part ominously, but neither Peter or Tony have any jerk reaction to the name. Tony, however, is extremely worried about the direction this is taking. Deadpool turns back to Tony.

 

“You and the super-friends failed. You couldn’t stop him — by the way, he totally looks like a purple thumb-thumb from Spy Kids, so that’s a bit embarrassing.” Deadpool shakes his head. “Point is, half of your team, gone. Completely wiped off the face of earth. Faded away into nothing but ash.”

 

Peter lets out a heart-wrenching sob, and Tony fights the overwhelming urge to reach over and hold Peter’s hand. He isn’t quite sure exactly what Peter’s crying about, but he knows that he will make Deadpool pay for it, by any means necessary.

 

Deadpool’s voice softens into something more somber. “I tried to live a life without a Spider-Man, without a Peter Parker. But… I just can’t. I need you, Peter. The world needs you.”

 

At the sound of a gunshot, Tony and Peter flinch, and Tony’s eyes squeeze shut.

 

“No!” Peter screams, but Tony realizes that he’s totally not dead, and has been sprayed with what he can only assume is blood and brains, so he opens his eyes slowly.

 

Deadpool’s lifeless body flops to the ground, revealing… Deadpool.

 

“Well there goes my streak.” He pauses for a second, eyes on Peter, and Peter shrinks a little under his gaze. “Nice to finally see your face, Petey. You’re absolutely stunning.” Wade lowers his own gun before re-holstering it. He steps over the dead body and sticks a hand out for Tony to shake. “We haven’t formally met, Mr. Stark. I’m Wade Wilson, the _real_ Deadpool.”

 

Tony doesn’t take his hand, but Peter crashes into Deadpool and wraps his arms around him. Peter doesn’t utter a word, only laughs tearfully. Deadpool seems shocked for a moment before he hugs Peter back earnestly.

 

Once Peter releases Deadpool, he wipes his face and whispers softly. “Thank you.”

 

Deadpool looks at a loss for words. He simply nods, turning to examine the body, and crouching down. “Looks like he’s got some kind of teleportation belt. I used to have one, but it made things too easy. Don’t know how it was able to cross into another universe, though. Could be that someone tampered with it? I think we should consult someone about this. Plus we’ve gotta get this guy back to his universe before he causes anymore trouble. Any ideas, Stark?”

 

Tony’s gotta admit, he’s shocked by the level-headedness the mercenary is displaying. He’s never seen this side of Wade Wilson, and has always just assumed he was a trigger-happy moron. Tony ponders it for a moment and says, “I might know a guy.”

 

* * *

 

Dr. Strange looks in mild horror at the body that’s been placed in front of him. He looks up at Tony, who just shrugs.

 

“Had to shoot him a couple times because he didn’t wanna stay asleep on the way over.” Deadpool chuckles. “So how have you been, Houdini?”

 

He sits on a stool and swivels while Dr. Strange carefully scrutinizes the belt.

 

Dr. Strange and Tony start talking about quantum energy or maybe arguing over whose got a bigger dick or something and Wade totally zones out before noticing Peter standing by himself, biting his nails with a worried expression on his face. Wade sidles up to Peter and tries to wrap an arm around him, but when Peter flinches, Wade drops his arm back down to his side.

 

“Sorry, I— I’m just kind of shaken.” Peter’s voice cracks but Wade doesn’t comment on it. He’s quiet for a second, before shifting on his feet and resting a hand on Wade’s bicep. He resists the sudden urge to flex, figuring that Peter wouldn’t really appreciate a spontaneous gun show the same way that Wade would. Peter sighs and practically whispers, “You know, I really have to thank you for what you did, Wade. You saved my dad’s life, and I can never repay you for it.”

 

 

“I saved your who now?” Wade thinks it makes sense, but it still surprises him. I mean, he should’ve picked up on it, especially when he thinks back to the times that Spidey and Deadpool bonding time had been interrupted by Iron Man dropping in to insult Wade and tell Peter he was “needed” back at the compound. Also the way that Peter talked about Tony like he was his role model. And the way that Peter totally would rant to Wade about how Tony “had a stick up his butt.” How did Wade miss this?

 

“Peter, come look at this.” Tony’s voice derails Wade’s train of thought, and Wade glances over to where Dr. Strange and Tony are examining the belt together. “The energy signature, it’s strange—it must be how he managed to travel to another universe with it.” Tony pulls a small device from his pocket. “Friday, show me the readings.”

 

The device scans the belt. “Sir, the energy signature of this matches the energy signature from the—”

 

“Tesseract.” Peter looks down at the holographic projections. At Tony’s sideways glance, Peter shrugs. “Didn’t have much to do in the compound when I was by myself, so I started reading your files. I remember this signature from the S.H.I.E.L.D report on the Tesseract.”

 

“Peter is right, sir.” Friday projects a hologram of the Tesseract. “Although, the traces on this belt are more concentrated, as if it was hit by the Tesseract in its purest form. The readings match an energy source in this room.”

 

Everyone looks up from the holograms to Dr. Strange, who sighs, and opens the eye pendant on his chest, revealing a glowing green… thingy. “This is the time stone. One of the six infinity stones. If this ‘Tesseract’ matches the time stone’s energy, it is possible that it contains an infinity stone, most likely the space stone. That would explain how Deadpool was able to travel to a different universe. However, the stone is probably still in his universe, because I don’t suppose your friend over there is hiding the space stone in his—.”

 

“It was Thanos.” A voice croaks from behind them, making them all whip around to look at where Deadpool is sitting up on the table, cradling his head in his hand. Wade immediately pulls a gun on him, and Deadpool holds his hands up in surrender. “Wait, let me explain!”

 

Peter places a calming hand on Wade’s shoulder, and Wade lowers the gun, glancing at Peter’s sympathetic face. God he loves that boy.

 

“I… After half the Avengers died, after Peter died…” Deadpool lets out a slow breath. “It ripped my heart out. I had to do something. But I knew that big fucking grape with a serious case of the sausage fingers wouldn’t listen to reason, or to begging. I knew he’d never bring Peter back, and I knew I couldn’t defeat him. Greater men than me have tried.” He looks to Peter.

 

“My only option was to find another Peter. Get him to come back with me, I don’t know. I didn’t really think about the logistics of it. I just knew that I couldn’t live without you.” The last sentence was said with so much sadness that Wade could practically feel Peter’s heart breaking beside him.

 

Tony clears his throat. “Sorry to crash your little pity party, but that doesn’t explain how you got here.”

 

“I tracked Thanos down—it took time. But I found that cankles motherfucker and slapped my belt down onto the space stone, and suddenly I was here. It was a bit more complicated than all that, and a lot more planning and color-coding with highlighters went into it, but that’s the basic gist. I thought it would fail, or I’d end up somewhere awful, like Alabama or Endor—Ewoks are horrifying, they destabilized a Galactic Empire and want to erase all humans, you cannot convince me otherwise—but it worked. Maybe due to luck, or the suspension of reality, or lazy writing, who knows.”

 

Tony turns to Dr. Strange. “So how do we get Dorothy back to Kansas? Something tells me that it’s not as easy as clicking her heels.”

 

Dr. Strange thinks for a second. “Who has the Tesseract now? Maybe we could borrow it for a quick second? Send an I.O.U.?”

 

Peter suddenly emerges from his cloud of thoughts and comes back down to earth, snapping his head towards Tony. “Tony, what if this Thanos guy comes for us, just like in his universe?” Peter points at Deadpool, who is twiddling his thumbs and whistling. “Don’t you think we should learn a few things about him before we send Deadpool back? So we’ll be prepared if he comes?”

 

“Peter, I don’t even know how to beat him. I don’t know if anyone can, once he’s got the stones. For all we know, he already has the power, reality, space, and soul stones. We only know that he doesn’t have the time stone,” Deadpool points to the artifact around Dr. Strange’s neck. “And we know he doesn’t have the mind stone, because it’s in Vision’s face, like a big ol’ pimple. Assuming that Vision is still kicking. But the power stone was on Xandar, a planet you’ve never even heard of, the space stone was with the beautiful man from Australia—Chris Hemsworth, not Hugh Jackman. The soul stone was on Vormir, and the reality stone was on Knowhere.” At everyone’s confused expressions, Deadpool clarifies, “It’s a mining colony inside celestial’s skull. But even if you were able to find all of the places, there’s no guarantee that the stones are still even there. And even if they were, you can’t hide them from him, he will find them, and he won’t let anything stand in his way.” His voice waivers and suddenly Peter is leaving Wade’s side to stand in front of Deadpool and take his hand in Peter’s own. Wade pushes down the jealousy that bubbles up in his stomach.

 

“What do you suggest we do, Stark?” Dr. Strange’s voice sounds dismayed, and the look on Tony’s face conveys a similar emotion. The tension in the room is heavy, and Wade is suddenly wishing the boxes weren’t being so silent today.

 

Peter looks over to Tony, who seems to be lost in thought. “Our first move will have to be finding Thor—we’ve gotta get this guy,” He jabs a thumb in Deadpool’s direction, “out of here before he kills somebody. Then… then we’ve gotta get the stones — whatever’s left of them, at least.”

 

“I don’t like the idea of having all the stones in one place. It’ll just draw Thanos to earth faster, and make it that much easier for him to acquire them all quickly.”

 

“Look, Dark Magician, we don’t really have much of a choice here. If the stones are here on earth with us, that means less people across the universe will die in his endeavor. And as long as they’re with us, that means they’re not with Thanos. The safest hands are still our own.” Tony’s eyes are glued to the floor. Everyone is silent for a moment, but as per usual, Wade ruins it.

 

“So what? Should we all grab some tacos while we wait for Zeus to open our snap? I vote yes.” Peter murmurs in agreement, and Deadpool doesn’t even have to respond for Wade to know what his opinion on the matter is.

 

“I’ll stay here, and try to get into contact with Heimdall, you guys go ahead.” Dr. Strange suddenly disappears and Wade simply shrugs.

 

Peter turns to Tony, and Wade notices he has put a little bit of distance between himself and Deadpool. “What are we gonna do about Deadpool in the meantime? We can’t exactly just let him roam free but we can’t just kill him over and over again. That’s not fair to him.”

 

Tony rolls his eyes. “Guess we’ll have to take him to the compound, have Natasha watch after him.” At that, the eyes of Deadpool’s mask widen comically.

 

_Ha, comically, like a comic! We’re from a comic! It’s funny!_

 

“Oh so now you want to contribute?” Wade bites to the yellow box, and Tony looks at Wade with anger in his eyes. “Oh, no, not you, Iron Dad, I was just talking to the boxes. I would never talk to you like that, especially now that I know you’re Petey’s daddy-o!”

 

* * *

 

They take Deadpool back to the compound, and he doesn’t put up a fight, seemingly resigned to the failure of his plan. After explaining what had happened to all the Avengers who were present, Tony asks Natasha and Clint to take turns watching him. Natasha looks all too pleased that she gets to play babysitter with Deadpool.

 

“It’s almost as if all the Avengers are holding a grudge against me or something.” Wade jokes, but his tone is all too self-deprecating for Peter to laugh, so he instead sends him a pitiful smile. “Who needs ‘em? We should start our own fight club, like ‘Spandex Boyz’ or something of the sort.”

 

Peter giggles and notices the way Wade’s eyebrows raise, even through the mask. “That’s an awful name. Thought you were gonna make the name something about my butt though, so I guess it’s still not as bad as it could’ve been.”

 

“Aw, you’re right, I missed my shot. Any chance I could have a do-over?” Wade pouts, and the sight makes Peter throw his head back in laughter. As Peter wipes a tear from the corner of his eye, Wade simply stares. “My god, you’re pretty.”

 

Peter feels his face heat up and his heartbeat speeds up. He’s embarrassed, can you blame him? But he doesn’t feel anything for the merc, definitely not. Maybe even has a case of life debt that’s making him feel especially fond of the man in front of him. “You should take your mask off, it’s only fair since you’ve seen my face.”

 

Where had that come from? Wade freezes for a long moment, and Peter is about to tell Wade he was just kidding, but then Wade is reaching up and peeling his mask from his head. Peter doesn’t know what he was expecting, but this feels different. Wade’s eyes are downcast as Peter takes in the mottled skin, along with the high cheek bones, a jawline that could cut the goddamn Hulk, and a cute little pout.

 

Peter’s pretty sure his heart stopped, or it’s beating so fast that he can’t feel it. Wade looks like he’s embarrassed, or really self-conscious, and Peter wants to say something to break the tension, but when he opens his mouth, all that comes out it a soft, “Wow.”

 

Wade’s eyebrows — or where his eyebrows would be, if he had any hair — shoot up, and suddenly he’s gaping, looking at Peter with deep blue, ocean eyes.

 

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter's screwed.
> 
> also... I might slightly be on board with ironstrange now?? don't know if I'll incorporate it into this fic but anything is possible.... let me know what you guys think about it
> 
> please leave me a comment or 11 or you can follow/message/fight me on Tumblr c; (king-emmakate)


	4. Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Dorothy to go back to Kansas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to indulge in my need for more Doctor Strange and my love for ironstrange for this chapter and probably in future chapters as well

Doctor Strange had sent a message to Heimdall, and was waiting for a response. He walks around the Sanctum, talking with Wong and drinking tea.

 

“It’s a little chalky, but not bad.”

 

“Still, I prefer Hulk-A-Hulk-A Burning Fudge. I have some in the freezer, if you want some.” Stephen is about to take Wong up on his offer when Thor and Loki suddenly materialize in the main corridor of the Sanctum. Wong and Stephen both activate their weapons, based purely on instinct, but once their nerves settle, they relax.

 

“Heimdall told me that you needed to see me urgently.” Thor says, his voice booming in the large room. Stephen motions questioningly towards Loki, who simply rolls his eyes at Doctor Strange. He smirks, seems like neither of them had forgot their last meeting. “I didn’t want to leave him behind without supervision.”

 

Loki crosses his arms and frowns, resembling a child. Stephen goes ahead to explain the situation to Thor, who nods understandingly and agrees to help them, if only because Doctor Strange had helped him locate his father. Stephen slides his sling ring onto his fingers, opening a doorway to the Avengers compound, and Loki and Thor step through.

 

“Looks like I’ll have to finish that Hulk-A-Hulk-A Burning Fudge without you.” Wong chuckles and Stephen shoots a small, friendly smile at him, and then steps through the portal, closing it behind him.

 

He looks around the huge room, rolling his eyes at the opulence of it. Leave it toTony Stark to make this place look like something straight out of a music video. He thinks that if he were to yell, his voice would echo off the walls. The elevator dings and Tony and Peter are walking out, towards the three visitors.

 

“Hey, it’s Thor!” Peter jogs over to Thor to put a hand out in front of him. “I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you, oh my gosh, you’re a god! That’s awesome.” Peter’s smile widens when Thor shakes his hand. Then he looks over to Stephen with an unreadable expression on his face—something about it fills Dr. Strange with trepidation, because it almost looks mischievous. “I think Tony needs your help getting Deadpool up here.” Peter smirks and Stephen brushes it off before looking over to Tony, who is looking at his watch, and paying no mind to the people in front of him.

 

Doctor Strange approaches him and he looks up, and something about his expression makes Stephen think that he’s about to say something snarky, so he cuts him off. “Shall we?” He motions to the elevator.

 

Tony’s face flashes confusion. “Shall we what?”

 

“Peter told me you said that you needed help escorting our other-worldly visitor.”

 

“I never said that, but I guess if you’d like to come along and make him a balloon animal for his departure, you’re welcome to, Doctor.” Tony smirks and Stephen thinks he hears a flirtatious lilt to Tony’s tone but doesn’t comment on it.

 

“You can just call me Stephen.” Tony doesn’t respond, but they both step into the elevator. It’s quiet and uncomfortable for a moment, and Stephen begins to wish there were music in this elevator so he’d have at least something to tune in to other than the sound of Tony breathing, and the whir of the elevator as it makes its way down a seemingly bottomless pit.

 

Tony clears his throat and turns to look at Stephen, who feels like he is shrinking under that gaze. It looks so genuinely curious and for a moment Stephen thinks Tony’s about to say something other than his usual snarky insults, but then Tony opens his mouth. “So do you wear that magician get-up everyday? And when you wash the cloak, does it try to get out of the washing machine, like a cat in a bathtub?”

 

Stephen rolls his eyes and is about to say something when the cloak reaches over and smacks Tony’s ass. Tony jumps in surprise and shoots Stephen an accusatory look, which only accentuates the redness in his cheeks. Stephen just raises an eyebrow, and when the elevator stops and the door slides open, he steps aside, allowing to Tony to walk in front of him. He subtly looks down at Tony’s round ass, silently appreciating how good it looks in his suit pants.

 

Forcing himself to tear his eyes away from Tony’s behind, he looks around the big room. There are two people — one he recognizes as Deadpool — sitting on the couch, watching TV, and a third guy standing off behind them with his arms crossed, seemingly observing the pair on the couch.

 

Tony clears his throat expectantly, and all three occupants turn to look at him. It was no secret that Tony commanded respect, and could capture the interest of an entire room. Something about him was simply magnetic. “Deadpool, the gods are here to beam you up.”

 

The woman seated on the couch gets to her feet and walks over to Stephen. “I’m Natasha, and I’m assuming you’re the wizard Tony keeps talking about, based on the outfit.”

 

Tony chuckles next to Natasha, obviously pleased about her comment on Stephen’s clothing, but it barely registers with Stephen, who is thinking about the fact that Tony “keeps talking about” him.

 

“Clint.” The man from the back of the room is suddenly behind Stephen, and he jumps at his voice. He turns around and Clint is holding out a hand for him to shake, so he does.

 

Tony talks to Natasha for a moment, and Stephen kind of just silently stands there, feeling awkward surrounded by a bunch of superheroes he didn’t really know. Well, he knew Deadpool fairly well, at least this universe’s Deadpool. He had a habit of dropping in on Doctor Strange to ask questions about magic or compare scars. Deadpool had asked for a love potion a couple times, or “at least something like the one in Shrek 2.” Stephen never had enough patience for Deadpool, and was quick to throw him out of the Sanctum on his ass.

Because of Deadpool, the elevator ride up isn’t nearly as quiet or as sexually charged. Not that the first one was sexually charged, just that this one definitely wasn’t. Once they were upstairs, they called Thor, Loki, and Peter into a room with Deadpool.

 

“You’ve got the Tesseract, right?” Stephen feels dumb for asking, but right now his main priority is reducing the amount of Deadpool in this universe. Loki brings his hand up, summoning the Tesseract, and Stephen doesn’t miss the way that Tony tenses a bit at the sudden movement. He doesn’t blame the guy after what happened in New York years ago—Stephen is wary of Loki, and he didn’t even have to face him in battle.

 

Stephen takes the Tesseract from Loki, watching for any sudden movements. He doesn’t think Loki would try anything while surrounded by people who could take him down, and he doesn’t think Loki even wants to do anything unsavory, but he’s careful nonetheless. The Tesseract hovers above his hand as he moves it over to the device Tony and Bruce Banner had constructed to harness its power, and redirect it to the belt. Once the Tesseract was in position, Tony turns to one of the holographic screens in front of him and starts fiddling with it. Stephen ignores what Tony’s doing with his hands in favor of focusing on the look of concentration on Tony’s face, and Stephen has to reprimand himself mentally for thinking of the word ‘cute.’

 

“Okay, we’re all set.”

 

“Wait,” Peter says before Tony can activate the device. Tony obviously recognizes the look in Peter’s eyes, and he steps back, giving Peter and Deadpool a bit of space. Stephen steps back as well, and Peter takes Deadpool’s hand into his own and whispers, “I’m sorry.”

 

Deadpool flinches at the words, but Peter continues. “I’m sorry that your universe seems absolutely craptacular right now.” Peter chuckles drily, but a tear rolls down his cheek. “I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that, and I’m sorry that you feel hopeless right now, but I can tell you from personal experience, it _does_ get better. It’ll hurt, but it will get better. And what helps the most is surrounding yourself with people who understand what you’re going through. Talk to the Avengers, let them in. Talk to Logan, you can even go talk to my Aunt May. Just let people in. I know you’re not very good at all that, so I wrote these for you.” Peter pulls 3 envelopes out of his jacket and pushes them into Deadpool’s hand. “One of them is for Tony, I want you to go find him and give it to him. Another is for my aunt, and I want you to take it to her. If she invites you in for dinner, say yes.” Peter laughs but it’s broken and tearful. “And the last one is for you. I know I’m not your Peter, but I hope it helps, even a little.”

 

Deadpool looks down at the letters and nods, at a total loss for words. Peter leans in and kisses Deadpool on the forehead, and even through the fabric of the mask, Doctor Strange can make out the pained expression on Deadpool’s face.

 

“I’m ready to go, Stark.” Deadpool’s voice is firm and deep, and Peter steps back as Tony retakes his position in front of the monitors. He turns the device on, and a portal opens. Deadpool turns to look at Peter one more time.

 

“I love you so goddamned much, Peter.”

 

And then he’s gone, and the portal is closing. Tony is immediately standing next to Peter, wrapping his arms around Peter and rubbing circles into his back. “It’s okay, kid, you’re okay.” Peter is openly crying now, and Thor comes to put a hand on Peter’s shoulder comfortingly.

 

For a moment, Stephen thinks about actually making Peter a balloon animal to ease the mood of the room, but decides that it would be absolutely ridiculous and totally uncalled for. Also he doesn’t really know how to make a balloon animal. Stephen has to admit that he has no idea what to do when it comes to kids. Given Peter isn’t really a kid—he’s technically an adult, but with the age difference and the way the other Avengers treat him, it almost seems like he is a kid.

 

“I’m scared, Tony. I’m scared of what will happen when Thanos comes.”

 

The room is silent. Not even Tony tries to reassure Peter. It’s clear that what Peter was feeling was mutual. A chill runs down Stephen’s back.

 

_When_ Thanos comes, it will be catastrophe.

 

——

 

When Peter returned home that night, he had every intention of just flopping down onto his bed and sleeping. Tony had suggested that Peter stay at the compound, but he really just needed to be alone for a while.

 

Peter unlocks the door with his key and steps into his cozy apartment, kicking his shoes off and throwing his blue hoodie on the couch. There’s a buzzing at the back of his skull, so Peter jumps to the ceiling, crawling along it, leaving the living room and going down the hallway. He peeks into the bathroom to see Wade stepping out of the shower, with a towel wrapped around his hips.

 

So much for being alone for a while.

 

Peter drops from the ceiling and asks in a deadpan tone, “Wade, what are you doing here?” Wade startles, letting out a totally unmanly screech and almost dropping his towel. It’s then that Peter really takes in the sight before him. Wide shoulders and huge arms, both dripping water. Peter almost shivers.

 

“Damn it Pete, give a guy some warning.” Wade breathes out before noticing that Peter’s kind of just… staring at him (can you blame him?) and he crosses his arms in front of his chest, which only accentuates the broadness of his chest and the massiveness of his biceps. Peter notices the self-conscious expression on Wade’s face and the way he can’t seem to stand still. “Do you happen to have some clothes I can borrow? My suit’s just a little bit… destroyed at the moment.” He points to the trash can, which is full of black ashes and burnt pieces of the Deadpool suit.

 

Peter clears his throat, which has suddenly gone quite dry. “Um, yeah… Let me see if I can find something for you.” Peter backs out of the bathroom, his eyes not sure if they should linger on those arms, that chest, those abs, or those beautiful blue eyes that seem to want to pull Peter right into them.

 

He goes to his bedroom, opening the bottom drawer and sifting through the pairs upon pairs of jeans and pajama pants, and finally locating the pair of gray sweatpants he had taken from Tony’s room — but he was pretty sure they were actually Steve’s. He pulls them out of the drawer and slings them over his shoulder, kicking the drawer closed and shuffling over to the closet, which was mostly full of hoodies and jackets. His Spider-Man suit was bundled up in the corner, and Peter momentarily reminds himself that he needs to wash it later. Soon. But not right now. He pushes the sweaters around to uncover a large hoodie he thinks he got from Ned, with a kitten on it and in Comic Sans it reads “Are you kitten me right meow?” It’ll do.

 

Peter pads back to the bathroom and throws the clothing items at Wade, who catches them with ease and gasps at the kitty sweater. Peter leaves the room to give Wade some privacy, and he heads to the kitchen to get himself a bowl of cereal. Lucky Charms, of course. He brings his bowl to the couch, and turns on the TV. Wade steps out of the bathroom and walks over to Peter, dropping himself heavily on the couch. He fishes the remote out from in between the cushions and switches it over to _Golden Girls_ , and Peter doesn’t complain, just continues to munch on his cereal.

 

Wade swings his arms to rest on the back of the couch and sighs. “So, how did that whole banishing-alternate-universe-Deadpool-to-the-Shadow-Realm thing go today?” His tone is light, but Peter tenses next to him.

 

“It was hard.”

 

Wade doesn’t respond. He is quiet for a few minutes, and Peter wonders if maybe the voices in his head are talking a lot, and Wade can’t focus. But then Wade is placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder, massaging it gently, and Peter relaxes into his touch. With just a simple motion, Peter feels some of his pent up stress melting away at Wade’s hands. Peter feels a tear roll down his cheek but doesn’t move to wipe it away, simply hoping that Wade doesn’t notice it. But of course he does, and he’s bringing his other hand to Peter’s face, wiping his cheek with the sleeve of his sweater. Peter turns to look at Wade, and _god_ is that a distraction. Wade’s face is sympathetic, and his eyes are kind. But a few inches south is where it starts to get interesting. Wade in a little too small clothing is absolutely… sinful. His shoulders are close to ripping that hoodie, the fabric stretched thin around his biceps. He knows he shouldn’t, but he glances down at the sweatpants, which also look like they can barely contain Wade’s muscles. His thighs are filling out the pants very nicely, and Wade is obviously well-endowed, because he’s definitely not hard — at least Peter hopes he’s not, because this is a serious moment — but damn, he’s huge. Peter tears his eyes away before he can get caught, and instead goes in to hug Wade.

 

He inhales deeply, and even Wade’s scent is pleasant. Although he _did_ just get out of the shower, so it could be brought to you by Old Spice. Peter’s suddenly grateful that Wade doesn’t have the power to read minds or something, because this is a whole ass man right here, and Peter’s brain is suddenly being assaulted with so many very gay thoughts. The way those strong arms wrap around Peter’s slender torso, it just feels so right.

 

“Baby boy, what the hell are you doing?” Wade’s deep voice snaps Peter out of his reverie, and he registers the fact that he’s currently stroking Wade’s biceps like an absolute lunatic. He pulls his hands away like they had been burned, and his eyes flick to Wade’s face, which is broken into a shit-eating grin. Peter feels his face heat up and he tries to pull away from Wade, but Wade grabs his wrists gently. He chuckles and in a jokey tone, “Hey now, you can pet them, they won’t bite.”

 

“Ugh, you’re so full of it.”

 

“You could be full of it too, if you wanted.” Wade winks at Peter, who stifles a laugh and punches Wade lightly on the shoulder. Wade hisses in mock-pain and rubs his shoulder while pouting. “How mean, kiss it better.”

 

Peter chuckles, and then leans in, kissing Wade’s shoulder and maintaining eye contact. Wade swoons, throwing the back of his hand on his forehead. “You’re going to kill me, baby boy.”

 

“Yeah, I might have to. But you’ll come back, you always do.”

 

“I’ll always come back for you, Petey. And I’ll always come for you.” Peter only snickers and pushes Wade away with his foot before relaxing back into the couch, noticing how Wade’s eyes linger on Peter, before he is distracted away by Bea Arthur.

 

——

 

They’re fighting a couple of goons in an old abandoned warehouse. Peter found out there was some drug trafficking business in Queens, and he invited Deadpool along for the bust. The guys weren’t very tough, but he still appreciated having Deadpool there to help him.

 

There’s one guy still standing, and Peter is webbing up a few of the other guys while he and Deadpool fight. The guy kicks Deadpool’s katana from his hand and immediately, as if by instinct, Wade pulls a gun on the guy.

 

“Deadpool! Wait! Don’t shoot him!” Peter is suddenly standing a few feet from Wade, with his hands up in what he thinks is a placating gesture. Wade freezes, and the guy in front of him decides it’s a good opportunity to be a dick.

 

“Oh, so Spider-Bitch is in charge now.”

 

Wade is obviously angered by this, and Peter flinches, waiting for the imminent gunshot, but Wade simply clicks the safety on and chucks the gun at the guy’s head, effectively knocking him out. Then he turns to Peter and shrugs.

 

“You should definitely change your superhero name to Spider-Bitch.”

 

——

 

Peter’s sitting on his couch in his apartment when Deadpool pushes a window open, falling through it and thudding against the floor.

 

“Wade? What the fuck!” Peter throws his book down and rushes over to Wade, hovering a hand over one of Wade’s open cuts that is currently spilling blood onto Peter’s clean floor. “What happened? Are you okay?”

 

“You should see the other guy.” Wade chuckles, and it turns into a coughing fit. Peter reaches up and pulls Wade’s mask off. He takes a deep breath once he is free from the confines of his mask. “He’s alive though, he’s fine.”

 

_You should have totally killed that guy though, he was the actual worst. His shoes? Terrible!_

 

**Also he tried to steal your money. I think that should annoy you slightly more than his shoes, although they were pretty ugly.**

 

“Do you wanna take a shower here? I can wash your uniform while you clean yourself up. Your clothes are in the basket in the bathroom.” Peter started keeping clothes for Wade in the bathroom due to the many times he decided he needed to come into Peter’s apartment and use his shower — apparently the water pressure was better here.

 

“You, sir, are an angel.” Peter helps Wade up, and Wade starts shedding out of his suit. Peter looks away, but Wade hands Peter his suit and Peter looks back at him. He rolls his eyes at the Spider-Man boxers Wade’s wearing and Wade walks off to the bathroom, recovering from his most severe wounds. Wade knows that Peter never quite got used to the sight of Wade’s wounds closing themselves up, or Wade growing back a whole body part. Peter would complain to Wade about how it was super gross. When Wade had a hand cut off, Peter had not been able to look away from the infantile hand that had started growing in its place. Wade told Peter he liked growing back new hands because it made his dick feel huge when he jerked off. Peter was not amused.

 

_Is that a little bit pedophile-y? It’s like a kid is touching you, and even if the kid initiates it, you’re still the pedophile._

 

**An unfair double-standard really. The kid gets off scot-free for molesting you and you’re getting shanked in prison.**

 

_Wake up, America!_

 

Wade takes a shower, watching the red-tinted water swirl down the drain. He considers jerking it in Peter’s shower, but against the boxes’ demands of ‘yes, do it, come all over the kid’s shower,’ Wade decides against it. He turns the water off, gets out and dries himself off, and pulls on the gray sweatpants and a t-shirt that says “I survived my trip to NYC.” Wade smiles at the shirt, thinking about Peter’s strange wardrobe. He admires how good his ass looks in these pants in his reflection before leaving the bathroom to bug Peter again.

 

_Ha, bug. Cause he’s Spider-Man._

 

Peter’s at the sink, scrubbing blood off of Wade’s suit, wearing those thick yellow rubber gloves that Dexter’s mom always wears in _Dexter’s Laboratory._ Now that Wade thinks about it, that show is pretty sexist in its exaggerated representation of archaic gender roles.

 

Peter looks up at Wade, and the concentrated expression on his face dissolves into something much softer. He finishes up with the suit and strips the gloves off, washing his hands and urging Wade to sit on the couch with him.

 

“So what happened tonight?” Peter’s voice is stern but not unkind. He crosses his legs underneath him and faces Wade.

 

“Some cum-guzzling douchebag tried to rip me off and when I wasn’t pleased about it, he stabbed me like 3 times. I only cut him up a little bit. He is still alive, and he’s got all of his limbs, so you don’t have to worry about that, Petey Pie. But I think people are starting to think I’ve gone soft because I haven’t unalived anyone for a few months, so a lot of people have been giving me trouble recently. Nothing I can’t handle though, I’m super tough.” Wade smiles and pats Peter’s thigh.

 

“Wait, you haven’t killed anyone for a few _months_?”

 

“Yeah, if you don’t count when I killed evil Deadpool, it’s been 3 months. I’m getting clean. Or trying, at least.”

 

And suddenly Peter is kissing Wade square on the lips, and Wade swears his brain short-circuits. He totally freezes as Peter kisses Wade’s scarred mouth, and then his cheeks, and his forehead. He kisses his lips one more time before pulling back to look at Wade.

 

“Um… what just— did you— this is the greatest fucking day ever, what the actual shit.”

 

Peter just smirks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeet, Pete wants the meat (im sorry for that)
> 
> ok im so excited for this storyline lol but I am greatly considering dabbling in a little bit of IronStrange ficlet on the side because they make me happy :) let me know what you guys think, your opinions are of great importance to me
> 
> as always, you can leave me a comment or hit me up on Tumblr (king-emmakate), very much appreciated!! love you guys <3


	5. Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you have scars and you're dating a Stark, you're gonna have a good time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes I haven't uploaded for a quick minute, so here's like 5000 words of smut and a little plot and sappy hoes being adorable :)))))

Wade couldn’t believe it. He was actually dating Spider-Man? Peter Parker? The cutest boy to ever exist and the owner of the nicest ass to ever squeeze into spandex. He was pretty sure he was dreaming. Even that first night, when Peter had kissed him, he assumed it was a joke or something, anything. But then Peter was confessing he had had feelings for Wade for a while—definitely not as long as Wade has had feelings for Peter, but he can’t blame Peter for his own grossness.

It took a lot of reassurance and time before Wade could even accept the fact that Peter was into him, but his mind was still boggled by the fact that Peter wanted to be around him so much.

They had only been dating for a few weeks, but, at Peter’s insistence, Wade still found himself staying over in Peter’s apartment almost nightly; sometimes sleeping on the couch, sometimes cuddling up next to Peter in his bed.

_And then you boinked him._

**Yeah right, he wishes.**

Wade doesn’t respond. He does wish. He wishes his entire body wasn’t covered in disgusting scars, and instead was worthy of Peter. He doesn’t think he ever can be. Even if he’s able to keep his record clean from here on out, he’s still too dirty for the perfect boy who decided to make Wade his. Peter is the ocean, full of life and beauty, with unfathomable depths and untouched wonders, and Wade is sand. Coarse and irritating, plus it just gets in all the places you don’t want it, and it’s very hard to get it out of those places. Seriously, sand just sticks to all your no-no regions and makes a nice home there. Great exfoliant for your ass crack though.

Point was, he has never done anything in his entire life to deserve the beautiful boy sitting next to him on the couch. The boy who always had messy hair, who never cared to make his socks match, the boy who puts his life on the line to fight for something he believes in—redemption 

Peter believes in redemption.

_What would Spidey do?_

Spidey would give Wade a chance to become someone better, to do something great. So Wade supposes he can give himself that chance too.

Wade is forced from his thoughts when Peter places a hand on his thigh. It seems innocent enough, so Wade doesn’t say anything and keeps his eyes on the TV. They were watching a documentary about spiders—Wade’s idea—and it was very educational. Wade learned that the bite of a Brazilian wandering spider can cause erections. At that, Wade turned to look at Peter and wiggled his eyebrows, to which Peter responded, “No, I don’t have that power, Wade.”

Peter’s innocent presence on Wade’s thigh becomes less family-friendly when he slides his hand down to Wade’s inner thigh and pulls his leg into Peter’s lap. Peter leans in to kiss Wade’s textured lips and his hand comes to rest over Wade’s crotch. Wade knows that these sweatpants don’t leave a lot to the imagination. He’s not hard, but he knows he will be very quickly if Peter keeps his hand there. Peter groans and deepens the kiss, gripping Wade’s cock through the fabric, and Wade feels a little embarrassed because he knows Peter could feel his cock twitch in his hand. Wade pulls back, holding Peter’s shoulders and trying to ignore the absolutely pitiful look on his pretty face.

“Pete—um, are you sure about this?” Wade wants to smack himself at the way his voice cracks.

Peter looks Wade dead in the eyes and reaches his hand down the front of Wade’s pants, wrapping his fingers around his erection. Wade wishes he couldn’t feel the way Peter’s index finger feels along one of the deeper scars on his skin, wishes he could have skin as beautiful and unmarked as Peter’s.

Peter smiles sweetly. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my goddamn life, Wade Wilson.” Then his smile becomes a little more mischievous as he whispers, “Super penis.”

**We don’t deserve this kid.**

Wade wants to argue—to tell Peter that he doesn’t have to touch him, he knows he’s gross— but then Peter is shifting so that he can straddle one of Wade’s thighs and leaning in to kiss his jawline. His hand tightens around Wade’s cock and gently tugs on it. Wade’s mouth drops open slightly to let out a soft gasp.

Peter pulls back to look at Wade’s face and his eyes widen. His cheeks are a soft pink shade as he locks eyes with Wade. “My god, you’re so gorgeous.” Peter’s expression is one of surprise—no, disbelief. As if he can’t believe that Wade is sitting here on his couch, as if he can’t believe that this is happening. Wade can’t either—I mean Spider-Man’s hand is down his pants. The look on Peter’s face is so real, so genuine and unabashed, and Wade is not ready for it. Before he even registers it, he’s coming into Peter’s hand with a quiet grunt.

**You’re much too old to be coming in your pants like that.**

“Oh fuck.” Peter’s eyebrows are raised and his face is red. He drops his head onto Wade’s shoulder and groans. “That was seriously hot, and I’m really hard, Wade.”

Wade says nothing but he picks Peter up and lays him down on his back on the couch, giving him a quick kiss before moving down to unbutton and unzip Peter’s jeans, pulling his hard cock free from them. His skin is so soft, so perfect. Wade knows it’s absolutely ridiculous, but he can’t help but feel envious.

Without any sign or warning, Wade swallows down Peter’s entire length. Wade feels Peter’s whole body spasm and one of Peter’s hands wrap around the back of Wade’s head as he lets out a beautiful moan. Wade doesn’t move, and after a moment, Peter starts to try to push Wade’s head around, attempting to jump-start Wade into action.

“Wade, please.” Peter whines, and his voice is so soft that Wade just needs to look up and see his expression. With his lips still wrapped around Peter’s cock, he glances up to Peter’s face. Peter is already staring at Wade, and he moans down at him before Wade hollows his cheeks and just fucking goes to town. Peter’s head snaps back, and his other hand comes up to grip Wade’s head. Wade feels moisture on Peter’s hand and with a small wince, realizes it’s his own penis sauce.

**You’re disgusting.**

He doesn’t falter though, and he continues bobbing his head on Peter’s cock. The sounds coming from his own mouth are a little gross and extremely indecent, but the noises coming from Peter’s mouth are heavenly—a lovely crescendo of pleasure.

“Wade—god, I’m close,” Peter’s breathy voice is absolutely enchanting and Wade just can’t believe this is happening. Wade pulls off of Peter’s cock with a loud pop, smirking a bit when Peter lets out a small whine. Wade wraps a scarred hand around Peter’s length, fisting his cock brutally. Peter’s hips buck and he’s writhing underneath Wade’s attention. Wade pushes Peter’s shirt up, exposing the long plane of his abdomen, which is perfectly muscled… but the skin there, it’s not perfect. It’s ridden with small scars—cuts, burns, possible stab wounds. Small scars cover Peter’s torso. It’s not perfect, not unmarked, not what Wade thought it was. But seeing those marks, the signs that Peter had struggled, but always survived, it was something Wade never knew he needed. His hand stutters, but he rubs his thumb under the head of Peter’s cock, absently listening to Peter’s sounds of pleasure.

This feeling—this pleasant, utterly welcome feeling he’s getting from looking at those scars, the proof that Peter is a fighter, a survivor… It suddenly occurs to Wade that maybe, just maybe, Peter has the same feeling when looking at Wade’s scars. Maybe in Peter’s eyes, Wade is a survivor too.

“I love you.” Wade’s voice is quiet and deep, and he feels the rumble in his chest more than he hears the words. He doesn’t regret them once they’re out of his mouth—they’re true, and he thinks Peter should know it. He doesn’t expect Peter to say it back. They’ve not been together long enough to actually be saying that to each other.

“I know.” Peter says calmly, or at least as close as he can get to calm while he’s being jerked off. Peter’s expression makes Wade’s stomach flip. Wade tightens his grip and goes back to the quick pace he was at earlier, making Peter shake and moan. Peter comes, and it shoots hot, white stripes across his belly as he arches his back and groans with his teeth clenched. Wade leans down to lick it up while he helps Peter come down.

“Shit, shit, Wade. Shit. You’re… whoa.” Peter pulls Wade up, shoving his tongue in Wade’s mouth. Wade knows Peter can taste his own release and it’s… fuckin’ hot. Peter pulls away and kisses Wade’s nose, and then wraps his arms around him, ensuring a cuddle session.

After a few minutes, Wade decides he really can’t stand the feeling of cold ass jizz in his pants, so he gets up to take a shower. Peter smacks his ass before he can get out of reach.

Once in the shower, thanks to his handy-dandy healing factor, he’s hard again. So he gives in to the boxes and jerks it in Peter’s shower. He doesn’t really feel guilty about it though.

When he gets out, he goes into Peter’s room to find something to wear. Peter’s typing something up on his laptop, and Wade leaves a kiss on Peter’s forehead.

“So when are we gonna tell the super-dads about us?”

“I’m sorry? The who?” Peter turns to look back at Wade, obviously confused, or maybe incredulous.

“No not The Who, I’m pretty sure they’re like all dead or something. Or they live in England. I don’t know which one is worse. The food in England is terrible. Like, toast and beans is not a meal, and certainly not breakfast. Those people are psychopaths.” Peter clears his throat. “Oh, my bad, I got carried away thinking about those darn Britons. I was talking about Stark and Strange. They’re totally screwing.”

“Shut up, Wade! No they aren’t. Tony would’ve told me if they were a thing.”

Wade rests his chin on the top of Peter’s head. “Oh, like how you told him we’re a thing.”

“That’s different.” Peter slips a hand into Wade’s, seemingly to comfort him. “He’d put you through the wringer if he knew about this. But we’ll tell him eventually. I just want to make sure the moment is right, and that he has no instrument for torture or murder anywhere near him.”

Wade just shrugs. “Well, while you’re waiting for that perfect moment, I bet Stark and Strange are getting it the fuck on. 

“They aren’t fucking, Wade!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Say it again.” Tony growls at Stephen, who is currently balls deep in Tony and pounding him into the mattress. Heavy breathing and the sound of skin slapping against skin fills the room.

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” Stephen’s deep voice in Tony’s ear is what pushes him over the edge. He scratches lines down Stephen’s sweaty back as he comes between the two of them. Stephen sucks in a breath but maintains his composure. “It’s a bit disturbing that you get off on that. Starting to think you’d have more fun masturbating.”

“Mm, maybe. Probably not. Your cock is magical.” Tony’s breathless, but he’s still insufferable. Stephen rolls his eyes and kisses Tony, rolling his hips against Tony’s, pushing back into that tight heat. Tony whimpers a little from the overstimulation, but he doesn’t complain. He clenches around Stephen, making him groan. Tony’s voice drops an octave. “Come inside me, fill me up, Doctor.”

Stephen grunts in Tony’s ear and does just that—finishes inside Tony before kissing him on the forehead and pulling out.

“You’re quite ridiculous.” Stephen isn’t really one for cuddling after sex, so he rolls off of Tony and goes to the bathroom to clean himself off and bring a clean towel back to the bedroom for Tony. Tony wipes himself down and motions for Stephen to come cuddle with him. Stephen pretends he doesn’t find it absolutely adorable and resists. Right as Tony’s about to transition to more persuasive tactics, Stephen’s cloak flutters into the room and pushes Stephen into Tony’s bed, and then wraps itself around Tony and Stephen.

Tony chuckles. “I win.”

Stephen rolls his eyes, but doesn’t try to resist. It’s not that he hates cuddling or anything, he just doesn’t feel the need to do it. “So… when are we telling Peter about this?” He motions in between them.

Tony groans and pushes his face into Stephen’s neck. Tony’s facial hair tickles his skin. “You’re ruining the moment, Wizard of Oz.”

“If I’m the Wizard of Oz, does that make you the Tin Man?” Stephen gives Tony a big kiss on the top of his head. “Are you worried Peter won’t approve?”

“It’s not that,” Tony pauses as he considers his next words. “It’s just that Peter fought my last boyfriend, before he ran off to be with the guy who killed my parents in cold blood, so I think Peter’s a little bit weary of my relationships. I’ll tell him eventually, I’m just waiting for the right moment. I know he’ll love you, I kind of think he was trying to set us up a while back. I found ‘is Doctor Strange single’ in my Google search history and Peter kept bringing you up in conversation. He asked me if I thought you were cute a couple times.”

“And? Do you think I’m cute?” Stephen can tell Tony wants to smack him, so he laughs. 

“You’re alright, I guess.” Tony hugs Stephen tighter. “We should really get up though. We have work to do.”

“Well, now I’m comfortable. Five more minutes.” Stephen feels Tony smile against his skin—most likely because he’s thinking that he’s won again. Stephen smiles because he feels lucky; Tony is a catch. Tony is probably the smartest person he’s ever met (with Bruce Banner as a very close second)—which is perfect, because it means there’s someone who can finally keep up with him. Tony is witty, and has a sense of humor that Stephen whole-heartedly agrees with. He doesn’t think he has to even mention how fantastic Tony’s ass is, because it’s blatantly clear that everyone already knows that. (Stephen had caught a few Avengers glancing at it a few times, and just smiled smugly, knowing that he gets to experience the whole thing. So he lets people admire it without repercussions—save for Steve, of course. If Steve is around, sometimes the cloak will wrap itself around Tony, effectively shielding his behind from view, which Stephen greatly appreciates.)

Tony is by no means perfect, he still has a lot of issues to sort out, and sometimes it seems like it’s his mission to piss off Stephen as much as possible, but it works. They work. Stephen thinks that this is maybe the happiest he’s been in his life, and he thinks that he’s won this time. He’s won, and Tony Stark is the ultimate prize. 

Friday’s voice forces Stephen from his content state. “Sir, Thor is here, as requested.”

Tony groans dramatically before rolling away from Stephen and off the bed. “Yeah, I did request that, huh?” He rubs the back of his neck and stretches before going to his closet to get dressed. Stephen gets dressed too and the Cloak of Levitation wraps itself around his shoulders.

Once downstairs, Tony asks Thor to go to Xandar and locate the power stone. He had Vision return to the Avengers compound about a week ago, a decision that angered Wanda. She had said something along the lines of “so now you’re locking _him_ in _his_ room?” to Tony, but had not actively resisted it.

Tony had been putting a lot of effort into locating the stones. He allowed Thor to hold on to the Tesseract and the reason he gave was that Thor could use it in his travels, but Stephen suspects the real reason is more along the lines of Tony not wanting to have to go up against an angry god again. Thor had agreed to this reconnaissance mission under the condition that the Asgardians could have a safe haven on Earth, which was a condition that—according to Tony—Ross was none too happy about. But Stephen knows first-hand that Tony can be extremely persuasive, and pushy. And annoying. And Tony _always_ gets what he wants, which is quite often a blowjob from Stephen.

Steve is sitting in the room as they all chat and Stephen can practically feel his eyes boring into the back of his head. Steve quite clearly isn’t too fond of Stephen—and the feeling is mutual—but Stephen doesn’t understand why. Steve had beat Tony within an inch of his life (okay, maybe he was exaggerating a little) and left him alone in Siberia to go off on a romantic getaway with the dude that killed Tony’s parents. Okay, so Stephen was a bit bitter. He understands that Bucky didn’t know what he was doing back then, and so he feels no resentment towards him, but Steve knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew it would destroy Tony. He _must_ have known it would rip Tony apart. But he did it all anyway.

And here Stephen is, giving Tony the attention and affection he not only deserves, but also needs. He knows that he makes Tony incredibly happy—Tony has said so himself. So if anything, Steve should feel grateful for Stephen’s presence in Tony’s life.

Stephen’s hand subconsciously reaches over to grasp Tony’s. Tony barely reacts, only rubbing his thumb absently over one of Stephen’s scars. That action used to make Stephen feel a little self-conscious, which—damn him—Tony picked up on and then spent twenty minutes kissing his scarred hands and fingers, telling Stephen he thought they were beautiful, and that they felt amazing inside of him.

Stephen is suddenly reminded how great his boyfriend is.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“I hope you’re ready baby boy, because I’m about to go spelunking in your poop chute.” Wade’s voice is loud and cheerful and Peter slaps his hands to his ears.

“Wade, goddamn it, see, when you say things like that it has the undesirable effect of making me very unhorny.” Despite his words, he pulls the back of his shirt over his head and strips it off, throwing it across the room and pushing Wade back onto his bed. He kicks his jeans off too, but leaves his boxers on. Peter’s so hard right now, he can’t think of anything that Wade could possibly say to turn him off.

“Is this what ‘unhorny’ looks like? Because it looks a hell of a lot like you want me to put my thing in your thing.” Wade is wearing those damn sweatpants, even though he just got out of the shower, so he should just be naked. But Wade knows they make Peter weak. They outline his cock so perfectly and they show off the muscles of his thighs and butt. Peter licks his lips.

“You better put your fucking thing in my thing.” Peter chuckles. Sex with Wade is certainly never boring; Wade says the strangest things.

Peter straddles Wade’s hips on the bed, pulling that tight cotton T-shirt off of Wade. Wade’s hands come up to squeeze Peter’s ass as Peter leaves open-mouthed kisses down Wade’s throat. Wade pushes Peter’s boxers down, and Peter can feel Wade trail a finger between his cheeks to rub at his hole. Peter groans at the light touch and moves his mouth down to one of Wade’s biceps. He loves Wade’s muscles, and he shows that by kissing and biting at the skin of his big arms. Wade brings his index finger up to his own mouth, but Peter grabs his wrist before he can get it in his mouth.

 “No, no, use lube. We’re not savages.” Wade groans but obliges, reaching over to the bottle of lube just sitting on Peter’s bedside table in plain view. Peter used to always put it away after they were finished using it, but with their healing factors and extreme interest in each other’s bodies, they never really had too long of a break. Wade spreads the lube over his fingers and brings them back down to Peter’s hole, circling the rim before pushing his middle finger into Peter slowly. Peter bites his lip and grinds down against Wade’s pulsing member, making Wade gasp.

Once Wade can fit three fingers into Peter with ease, he flips their positions so that Peter is on his back underneath Wade, and his legs are spread over Wade’s thick thighs. Wade pulls Peter’s boxers off and discards them on the floor. Wade pushes his sweatpants down his hips without actually taking them off—hot— and lubes up his cock. They don’t use condoms, per Peter’s request. Wade tried to insist they use condoms the first time they had sex, but Peter went into this whole spiel about how Wade can’t possibly have an STD and how Peter _definitely_ couldn’t have one, which had sparked a whole new conversation about Peter being a virgin and then Wade was blabbing on about how Peter should lose his virginity to someone more worthy, and it was a whole big thing. Peter’s real reason for not using a condom was because he wanted to feel the ridges and bumps on Wade’s cock inside him as much as he could, and after telling Wade that, Wade no longer had any qualms about taking Peter’s virginity.

As Wade pushes into Peter, Peter’s mouth opens in a silent moan and his hand flies up to the headboard, gripping it for stability. Wade bottoms out and starts a slow, torturous pace. The tip of his cock barely grazes Peter’s prostate, and then Peter’s moaning loudly and shaking. There’s a loud cracking sound and suddenly Peter is simply holding a single chunk of the headboard in his hand. He brings it down to look at it in disbelief, and both he and Wade freeze, eyes wide.

“Oops?” Peter giggles and throws it to the floor. Wade looks shocked, and entirely aroused. After recollecting himself, Wade picks up a brutal pace, tucking his hands under Peter’s knees and pushing them as far apart and as far up as they would go. The position is absolutely indecent and hot, and so are the noises Peter realizes are streaming out of his open mouth. Wade seems to be lost in the motion, and Peter can’t really focus over the feeling of his prostate getting abused over and over, but he thinks Wade is just groaning “I love you” over and over again. It’s really hot, but it also makes Peter’s heart flutter.

“Fuck yes, baby, that feels—mm—so fucking good.” Peter’s voice breaks, and it sounds absolutely debauched. He rakes his nails across Wade’s broad shoulders, causing Wade to growl into Peter’s ear before kissing him roughly.

“Don’t stop, fuck, fuck Wade, I’m gonna come.” Peter’s so close, just a little bit more. Wade thrusts hard into Peter before shooting his hot load deep inside him and moaning against Peter’s neck. He rides out his orgasm and quickly wraps a hand around Peter’s neglected cock, which is leaking profusely.

Peter feels a familiar tingle down his spine as he comes hard into Wade’s hand, arching away from the mattress. But the feeling in his spine isn’t from his orgasm. With his mind completely focused on what’s happening with his penis, he can’t figure out what the feeling is coming from…. until—

“Peter!” It’s Tony, and he’s knocking on the front door of the apartment. Peter freezes, as does Wade, and neither of them make any move to get up.

“Shit, why now? God damn it. Go away.” Peter whispers to Wade, hoping Tony will just assume he isn’t there and just leave, but it never happens how Peter wants it to.

There’s the sound of the key in the lock, and the door is swinging open. Peter jumps up, and wraps a sheet around himself as Tony then pounds on his bedroom door. He motions for Wade to hide and be quiet as he goes to open the door.

“Hey…” Peter even thinks his voice sounds guilty as he leans (hopefully) nonchalantly against the doorframe, and Tony examines the state of Peter’s hair and face before trying to peek into his room, which most definitely smells like sweat and sex. Peter being clad in only a sheet doesn’t do much for him either.

“Um, you got a girl in there?” Tony clears his throat, obviously looking very awkward and uncomfortable.

There’s a deep chuckle coming from behind Tony. “So much for waiting for the ‘right moment,’ am I right?” It’s Doctor Strange, and he looks a little embarrassed.

Tony’s head whips back to glare at Strange. “Well how was I supposed to know he’d have a girl over when I came to break the news, Stephen?” Strange just sighs and shakes his head.

“Told ya they were dating, Petey!” And then Wade’s wrapping an arm around Peter and standing beside him in the door frame. Peter looks down and Wade is wearing Iron Man pajama pants (Peter swears he has no idea where those came from), which means he intentionally changed out of his neutral gray sweatpants in order to piss off Tony. Or Peter. Probably both.

Tony looks back and forth between Wade and Peter before turning to look at Doctor Strange who looks thoroughly amused, and almost like he’s containing laughter.

“How long has this been going on then, Pete?” Tony sounds mad, like Peter knew he would be, but Peter doesn’t feel apologetic at all.

“How long have you been with him?” He gestures to Doctor Strange, who simply raises his eyebrows. Tony narrows his eyes.

“That’s not the issue here! You’re having sex with Deadpool, a paid mercenary! He kills people for money, Peter. Have you forgotten how much that bothers you? Or did he convince you it was okay?”

“His name is Wade, not Deadpool, and he hasn’t killed a single person for 6 months! Now if you’re just going to yell at me about how I’m an idiot and my boyfriend sucks, there’s the door.” Peter is livid, and Wade rubs Peter’s hip reassuringly.

Tony exhales slowly and rakes a hand through his hair. “No, Peter, I’m sorry. I’m being a jackass. I wanted to come over and tell you about me and Stephen. I brought food.” Tony holds up a plastic bag full of hot takeout food.

Peter pauses for a second. “D’Angelo’s?”

“Duh.”

Peter’s about to lunge at the bag before he realizes what he’s wearing—and he feels Wade’s release starting to leak out of him. “Get some plates and there are drinks in the fridge. We’re gonna get dressed.” Peter closes the door on Tony and Strange, and goes to the master bathroom while Wade rustles around in Peter’s closet. 

Lunch is surprisingly pleasant. Wade gets along with Strange… ish. And Tony tries very hard not to be an asshole to Wade, which Peter appreciates, because he knows from personal experience that Wade tends to bring out the asshole in people. Especially Peter’s asshole. Pun intended.

It’s comfortable, with Wade sitting next to Peter, and Strange kissing Tony’s cheek. Peter could definitely get used to this.

Which of course, meant things had to go to shit again.

Friday’s voice breaks the comfortable silence in Peter’s kitchen. “Sir, a distress signal has been received from Thor. It appears that Xandar has been destroyed. The power stone and the Tesseract have been taken.”

The room is silent, and Peter feels himself begin to sweat as his entire body is filled with dread. Wade reaches down to hold Peter’s hand, but he suspects that it’s more to comfort himself rather than to console Peter.

“Did Thor say where he is now?” Tony’s voice shakes as he looks over at Strange and Strange holds his gaze, with concern etched onto his face.

“He appears to be stranded in space, now that he is without the Tesseract.” Friday’s voice almost seems to sound apologetic.

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dramatic music*
> 
> ok literally I have a midterm tomorrow that I haven't studied for and I think it's about water? or something idk imma just take that L
> 
> please leave me a comment it makes my day :0 or you can send me something on Tumblr (king-emmakate) thank youuuuu!!!


	6. Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade is insecure and frankly, an idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow I finally updated! you boutta wish I didn't tho

Thor gasps as he regains consciousness. He’s in some sort of ship. When he turns around, standing across from him in defensive positions is a green woman, a grey, bald man with peculiar scars, a rabbit, a woman with antennae protruding from her forehead, a tree, and a blonde man that just looks like a regular human.

“Who the hell are you guys?”

The tree looks up from the device in his hands and deadpans, “I am Groot.”

“Guardians of the Galaxy? Never heard of you. I am Thor, son of Odin.”

The rabbit puts his gun on his back before stepping forward. His face is smug and aggressive. “What was all that? You were just floating around in space, all lifeless and gross.”

“It… It was Thanos.”

The group freezes at the name, recognition and dread collectively projected from them. Thor tells them about the two stones, about the fight with Thanos, and his destruction of Xandar. The group’s reactions are strong, but Thor notices that the green woman seems particularly disturbed and upset.

He then explains that their next destination must be Nidavellir, cuing the group to start bickering with each other. Thor kind of zones out, wishing he was back on Earth with Loki, and none of this Thanos business had ever happened.

In the end, they came to a decision in which the rabbit and the tree come with him to Nidavellir and the others go to Knowhere to look for Thanos and the reality stone. Thor thought it was a dumb idea, because there was no possible way they would be able to defeat Thanos, but he had more important things on his mind, so he went off to get a new weapon with the rabbit and the tree.

Thor doesn’t know if he was strong enough to overpower Thanos, but it doesn’t matter if he can or can’t. He has to. Thanos must be destroyed, no matter what. No matter his limitations, no matter what was stacked against him. He would do it for the fallen, he would do it for the living. He would do it for his people, for all people.

For his brother.

——

“Kill, fuck, marry: Black Widow, Ant-Man, Spider-Man. Bug edition.” Wade’s sitting on the couch in the Avengers compound, trying not to say anything or do anything that would make Tony throw him out on his ass. He felt starstruck even being in this building. He had been in it once before, but was too distracted by the presence of Peter’s pretty face to even appreciate the fact that he was in a room that all his favorite heroes had been in. Currently, he’s sitting across from Sam, Natasha is seated off to the side, looking at her phone, and Peter is asleep with his head in Wade’s lap. Wade absent-mindedly pets Peter’s head, reveling in the sense of calmness that washes over him at the feeling. This is his boy.

Sam rolls his eyes and considers not responding, but Natasha is looking at him expectantly. He groans, trying to prepare an answer that will offend the least amount of people. “Uh, I guess kill Scott, marry Nat, and um I guess that leaves fuck—”

Tony clears his throat and everyone’s eyes snap to where he’s standing in the doorway. Wade starts cackling evilly, and he curses himself when Peter stirs, blinking open his eyes in apparent confusion. Wade loves this boy so much.

Tony glances down at Peter, and then up at Wade. There is obvious discomfort in his expression and body language, and Wade tries to ignore the pang of guilt and sadness he feels. He fails. He knows as well as Tony does that he doesn’t deserve the ball of sunshine that is yawning and stretching in his lap, eyes looking into Wade’s with affection. That look only makes the feeling worse.

**You should just dump him and save him from the misfortune of dating you.**

_Don’t dump him, you should tie him up and lock him in your bedroom. He could be your toy forever._

Wade shakes his head, wishing he could simply just shut the boxes up, but knows that it’s impossible. The only thing that shuts them up for even a little bit is a bullet between the eyes. Well, and sometimes an orgasm.

And sometimes, when Peter says or does something so amazing that it makes Wade’s mind go blank, the boxes bless him with a moment of silence. He has learned to sort of tune them out, so that they are a dull hum in the back of his mind, making crude jokes and criticizing Wade for just about everything. But sometimes they slip into his consciousness, and they take that opportunity to make Wade feel like he deserves to die, or they say something terrible about Peter that makes him want to die just so he can shut them up for a good minute.

Peter puts a hand gently on Wade’s chest, with a knowing look on his face, and the boxes go silent, allowing Wade to fully appreciate the boy who is smiling up at him reassuringly. Peter is amazing. He knows he doesn’t deserve him. He doesn’t need a reminder to know that. Wade is a dumpster fire personified and Peter is like, a nice pair of crocs after a day of kicking ass and having your ass kicked.

Natasha drops her phone next to her on the couch cushion. “Any news on Thor or Thanos?” Nat’s voice is a welcome distraction from the storm in Wade’s mind. Peter sits up, looking at Tony with concern. Wade tries to take Peter’s hand, whether to comfort Peter or himself, he hasn’t decided. But as soon as their hands make contact, Peter pulls his away and wraps his arms around himself. Wade feels his heart drop.

_That’s rough, buddy._

“Nothing. With Thor MIA, we have no way to retrieve any of the stones—and no way to monitor how many stones Thanos has. Right now we only know he doesn’t have Vision’s or Stephen’s.” Tony looks worried and upset, but mostly he looks disappointed in himself. His gaze lands on Peter and his eyes are full of sadness and regret. It almost looks like Tony thinks he’s already lost him.

The thought makes Wade feel empty.

“There’s nothing we can do at this moment. The best we can do right now is get some rest, and try to prepare ourselves for when he does come.”

——

Once they’re back at Peter’s apartment, Wade is in the kitchen cooking dinner for himself and Peter. Wade doesn’t miss the way that Peter avoids eye contact and seems to be in his head. He doesn’t want to say anything, figures that he’s thinking about Thanos and thinks that bringing it up may do more bad than good.

Wade plates a quesadilla and places the plate in front of Peter, who’s sitting at the counter with his head resting on his crossed arms. He looks up at the presence of food, and takes a bite of the quesadilla, trying not to moan at the taste. Wade reaches out to lay a hand on the arm Peter is resting on the table. Peter looks up at Wade.

“I love you, Peter. I love you, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Or to Tony and Stephen. I swear it.”

Peter’s eyes soften, and Peter smiles sadly at Wade. “I don’t know if you can guarantee that, but I know you’ll die trying.” Peter tries to smirk; it’s an attempt at humor, one that Wade appreciates. As Wade looks upon his pretty boy in front of him, it once again occurs to him how young and inexperienced Peter is. He’s got his whole life ahead of him. He can be anything.

But he decided to be Wade’s.

——

Wade wakes up in Peter’s bed, and the puff of brown hair sprouting out from under the covers next to him attests to Peter’s unconscious state. Wade shuffles down beneath the covers to discover that Peter is only wearing a pair of briefs that hug his curvy little bottom _so_ nicely. He tugs on the waistband and Peter shifts a little, giving Wade more access to that cute butt.

He pulls Peter’s underwear down his thighs and slides them off his legs, discarding them somewhere in the bed. With that beautiful ass on display, Wade just has to freeze for a moment and appreciate the glory of it. He whips the covers off and Peter softly groans in protest, but stays asleep.

Wade squeezes those round globes in his big hands and relishes in how warm and squishy they are. He wants to rub his face against them. He does. He massages them and Peter hums in approval, but still, he doesn’t wake up. Wade starts to wonder how far he can get before Peter does wake up. For a moment he considers whether or not this is a little rape-y or at the very least frowned upon, but he thinks Peter won’t be too upset waking up to this, so he continues.

Pushing Peter’s cheeks apart, Wade dips his tongue in between them, licking a stripe from the back of Peter’s balls up to his puckered hole. Peter shivers and the little mewling sound that escapes his mouth is absolutely sinful, and it goes straight to Wade’s dick. He circles his tongue around Peter’s hole and spreads his ass further, and then pushes the tip of his tongue past the first few rings of muscle.

Peter lets out a moan and then shoots up, lifting himself up on his arms and craning his neck to look back at Wade accusatorially, who simply makes eye contact, shrugs, and continues fucking Peter’s tight hole with his tongue.

“Wade, you can’t do that when people are sleeping!” Peter protests, prompting Wade to slide a finger into Peter alongside his tongue, making Peter’s eyes roll back into his head as he whispers, “Oh fuck.”

Wade smirks, pulling back and pushing two fingers in, searching for Peter’s ‘on button.’ When he brushes against it, Peter’s hips jerk forward and he starts grinding down on the mattress. “I can stop, if you’d like me to.”

“God, you’re such an asshole.” Peter laughs breathily and groans when Wade’s mouth latches onto one of his balls and _sucks_. “But don’t stop now.”

At that, Wade pulls his fingers out, ignoring Peter’s whine, flips Peter over and presses his fingers back in. “Don’t wanna make a mess on _our_ bed.” Wade’s fingers abuse Peter’s prostate and he slips the tip of Peter’s cock into his mouth.

Peter shoves Wade’s head down onto his cock and he feels the tip hit the back of his throat. Peter thrusts his cock into Wade’s mouth and down his throat. He lets out a guttural moan as he cums down Wade’s throat. Wade feels Peter’s hole spasm and clench around his fingers, which is so hot that he immediately shoves a hand down his own pants, fisting his own neglected cock with such intensity that the friction kind of hurts. As he swallows down Peter’s load, he continues to bob his head, which totally drives Peter crazy. He’s arching off the bed and gasping, which is also hot. He pats Wade’s head, trying to signal that it’s too much, but Wade, being the asshole he is, ignores it and hollows his cheeks.

Peter whines and pulls Wade off of him using his super strength. He flips them over so that he’sstraddling Wade’s torso. Wade’s still jerking himself off while Peter growls and kisses Wade hard, pressing his shoulders down into the mattress with his strong, small hands.

It’s hot, Peter being rough with Wade, and it makes Wade cum hard into his own hand. His soft gasps are swallowed up by Peter’s aggressive mouth, and Wade doesn’t complain.

“Thanks for breakfast, baby boy.”

For breakfast, Wade makes Peter a huge stack pancakes. His Hello Kitty apron looks dashing on him, if he does say so himself. Peter eats them all up, making sure to let out lots of noises of appreciation. He washes the dishes and moves their laundry along. Something about Peter being all domestic and adorable just warms Wade’s heart. He smiles.

Peter pulls Wade’s suit out of the dirty laundry basket. It’s covered in blood and filled with bullet holes. “Wade, you can’t put this in with all the other clothes! Blood stains clothes!” He pulls out a white button up shirt that’s covered in blood spots. “Oh great. This is my work shirt, Wade! Tony would kill me if I walked into Stark Industries in this.”

Wade is taken aback at how panicked Peter sounds, and he is instantly filled with guilt. “Seltzer water and lemon juice should get that right out!” He springs up from his seat and goes over to help Peter clean blood out of his shirt. When he tries to take it from Peter, Peter snatches it away and turns away from Wade.

“I can do it myself. It’s fine.” His voice is cold as he snaps at Wade, and Wade deflates. He mumbles an apology but Peter either doesn’t hear it or he doesn’t care, because there is no response as he goes over to the sink to wash his shirt.

Later that same day, Peter and Wade are out grocery shopping. Wade is standing on the back of the cart, skating through the aisles, and looking super cool.

**Super cool? You’re acting like a child. It’s a wonder Peter can even stand you.**

He skids to a halt when he notices a very good-looking jock type dude approach Peter. Wade’s sure he’s about to start spouting some douchebaggery that will guarantee him a one-way ticket on the pain train, but the look on his face was kind and genuine. Something about that made Wade’s blood boil.

“Hi, sorry, I don’t ever do this but I saw you and thought you were super cute so I had to come over. I don’t even know if you’re into guys but you miss all the shots you don’t take, right? Anyway, I just wanted to give you my number. You should call me sometime. O-Or not, that’s fine too.” The dude holds a piece of paper out for Peter to take, but Peter just smiles politely.

“That is so kind of you, but I actually already have a boyfriend.” Peter smiles brightly as he gestures to Wade, who just gapes at the interaction going on in front of him. The guy looks over to Wade, and Wade doesn’t miss the way his eyes widen in shock.

He tears his eyes away after a moment, focusing back in on Peter. “I see. Maybe hold onto it anyway, just in case.” He winks at Peter, and Wade notices the blush on Peter’s cheeks and that just fucking does it.

“He doesn’t want your number, douchebag, so fuck off before I break my streak and your neck.”

The guy recoils and Peter turns to face Wade, anger painted onto every feature in his face. His eyes may as well have flames in them, and he wouldn’t be surprised to see steam emerging from Peter’s ears. “What the hell, Wade?!” He turns back to the guy and his face softens into something apologetic and sympathetic. “I’m so sorry about that, he’s not usually like this.”

**Yes you are, you’re always a piece of shit. You don’t deserve him.**

_Maybe Peter would be better off with this guy._

**Peter would be better off with any guy. Peter would be better off alone. Peter would be better off dead in a ditch than with this joker.**

Wade turns away and takes a few steps away from Peter and the dude, trying to rein himself in. He hears the guy say something along the lines of ‘I overstepped, this is my fault, I’m sorry’ and when he looks back, he thinks he sees Peter take the slip of paper from the other man and stuff it into his back pocket. He turns back to Wade, who looks away quickly. Marching over to where he is sulking by the cart, Peter crosses his arms like an angry mom and it makes Wade feel so small.

“Are you shitting me right now, Wade? You wanna try to explain to me why you had to be an asshole to that guy?”

Wade shrugs. “You are what you eat.” He doesn’t kid himself into thinking that Peter will laugh, but he doesn’t expect the resounding slap across his face.

——

When they’re back at home, Peter orders a pizza. They didn’t end up buying anything from the store because Peter was so pissed that he couldn’t stand being at the store with Wade for a moment longer. They both sit on the couch, with considerable distance between them. Peter’s reading a book and Wade’s watching the Discovery Channel.

After a few minutes of just relaxing on the couch, he feels his anger ebb away, and a renewed sense of calmness—and hunger—washes over him. Wade says nothing, and his expression betrays that the voices are doing all the talking for him.

The pizza guy comes, and Wade doesn’t get up and make pizza puns to the guy or sing about Krusty Krab pizza, like he always does. He just sits silently on the couch while Peter pays the guy and sits down at the table. Peter eats half of the pizza, and Wade just stays exactly in the same spot, staring at nothing. Peter feels sorry about yelling at Wade, even if he totally deserved it.

“Hey, there’s pizza, if you want some.” Wade doesn’t respond. Doesn’t give any sign that he heard Peter at all, so he tries again.“About earlier—”

“I love you, Peter, you know that, right?” Wade’s voice is strained, and Peter gets a tingle in his spine and at the base of his skull. It’s his spidey sense. It’s weak, and he knows he’s not in danger, but something isn’t right.

“Yeah, yeah, I know that, Wade, I—”

“Then you know how hard this is for me.”

“Wade, what’s—”

Wade stands up, and finally looks Peter in the eye. “I can’t do this anymore, baby boy. Not to you. You don’t deserve the things I put you through. You’re so much better than me. You deserve so much better than me.”

“Wade, what are you saying? I don’t want anyone but you.”

“I would’ve killed that guy, Peter. I would’ve killed him. I’m not you, Pete, I’m not a good person. I tried to be. I tried to be good, to be who you wanted me to be. But I can’t. That guy, that guy who fights for what’s right and does the right thing, that’s not me. I can’t be the guy you want me to be, I can’t be the guy you deserve.”

Peter’s eyes sting, and they become blurry with tears. “You are the guy I want, Wade. You’re so good to me. You’re a good guy. You make me so happy.” He puts his hands on either side of Wade’s face.

Wade takes one of Peter’s hands into his own, and places a soft kiss on his palm. “I’m gonna hurt you, Peter. I know I will. And when that happens, I won’t be able to live with myself. I can’t hurt you, Peter. Not you.” He pulls Peter’s hands away from his face and steps back, towards the door.

“And what do you think is happening now? You’re ripping my heart out. You don’t want to hurt me? Then don’t leave!” Peter’s yelling, his breath is shaky, and the tears are finally falling.

Wade looks at Peter for a long moment, and for a second, Peter has a spark of glittering hope. Hope that Wade will listen. But it flickers out.

“I’m sorry.” Wade’s eyes are sad, but his face is resigned. He turns away from Peter and walks to the door.

“No, no! Don’t leave me, Wade. Don’t leave. You can’t leave me. Wade, please, don’t do this. Please don’t go.”

Peter’s voice breaks as he sobs. He wants to run to him, tackle him and web him up so he can’t leave. But he’s frozen. It’s like his feet are bolted to the ground. He can’t bring himself to push forward. To grab onto the one thing in his life that felt real. To never let him go.

But that decision had already been made. Wade was already gone, even if Peter could stop him. Wade is leaving him, and there isn’t a thing he can do about it.

“Wade. Please.”

The click of the door closing seals his fate.

——

Peter wakes up on his living room floor. Tears had dried on his face, leaving his skin feeling dehydrated and crusty. He stands up, his knees feeling weak as he sways slightly. He stretches and feels his back crack in various spots.

He glances around the room, dimly lit by the daylight coming in the window. It was raining outside and the sound of rain pattering on his windows and fire escape encapsulated the room.He spots the pizza box on the table. When he opens it, there is still half a pizza left.

He throws the box at the wall and goes to bed.

——

Tony and Stephen had come to visit Peter. They said it was because he hadn’t called or visited in a few weeks and they wanted to check up on him. Damn it. He should’ve at least texted, to avoid suspicion.

Peter sits across the table from Tony and Stephen at some cafe. He barely registers their conversation. He mostly just feels numb. He hadn’t heard anything from Wade since he left. Hadn’t seen anything on the news about Deadpool. Hadn’t seen him out at night.

He begins to wonder if Wade took a job out of the country. Now that Peter wasn’t policing him, maybe he was taking cash to take people out again.

Peter pushes the thought from his head. He knows there is good in Wade. He’s seen it. If he didn’t think Wade was capable of being a good guy, he wouldn’t have ever fallen for him. Something told him that Wade wouldn’t want to break his streak. If he did love Peter, and Peter knows that he _did_ , he would want to keep his streak going. He would have to.

But if Wade loved Peter so much, like he said he did, why did he leave? Peter begged him to stay. He broke down in front of him. He had tried to vocalize what he had been feeling for a while.

“Bastard.”

Tony freezes and Stephen looks up from his coffee. “Who’s a bastard?” Tony’s tone is accusatory.

Peter’s head snaps up. “Oh, um, sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” Tony arches a brow at Peter. “Not you. Well, at least, I wasn’t talking about you right now.”

Stephen chuckles, always happy to hear Peter insult Tony. “What’s going on, then? Who’s a bastard?”

“Oh, uh, it’s nothing.” Peter looks away, trying to avoid talking about his breakup, which is too fresh for his liking.

But Tony is too sharp for his own good. “What did Wilson do?”

Peter is silent for a moment as he tries to both think of a way to explain what happened withoutmaking Wade look bad (even though what he did was shitty) and also calm himself down enough to make sure that he doesn’t start crying while trying to tell Tony about it.

“We broke up.”

Stephen is quiet, his face solemn, like he is trying to sympathize with Peter without it seeming like pity. Tony, however, claps his hands together. “You finally dumped him? That’s great news! We should celebrate!”

“Uh, no, actually he dumped me.” Peter’s eyes drop to the table and he twiddles his thumbs, feeling awkward about having this conversation. Tony doesn’t say anything. When Peter looks up, Tony is just gaping at him in disbelief. It takes almost a full minute before Peter sees the cogs in Tony’s head start to turn.

“He did what now?” Tony has always been vocal about his dislike for Wade, but with the seething rage Peter sees in Tony’s eyes, it finally sinks in how much Tony thought that Peter was too good for Wade. Peter for one, was tired of everybody else deciding what Peter deserves without even asking him what he wants.

“He said I was too good for him. That I deserve someone better, and that he can’t be with me because he thinks he’ll hurt me.” It takes every ounce of self-control Peter has not to let his voice waver.

“That’s what everyone has been saying for months now!” Tony is chuckling. He’s trying to make jokes. Everything Peter had ever wanted just walked right out of his front door and out of his life. And here Tony was, making jokes. Peter feels rage bubble up inside of him.

Stephen gives Tony a harsh look, and then speaks in a placating tone. “I’m sorry, Peter. I’m sure it’ll work itself out. Either he’ll realize he was an idiot and come back, or you’ll realize he was an idiot and move on. Whatever happens, your dad and I are here for you. Isn’t that right, Tony?” The last part is spoken through his teeth.

Peter thinks Stephen stomped on Tony’s foot or something because Tony yelps before he assents.

——

“I’m a fucking moron.” Wade sighs and drops his head onto the bar counter. Sister Margaret’s is closed for the night, but Weasel lets Wade stay after hours, if not just for some entertainment while he cleans and stocks for the next day. Domino sits on the stool next to Wade, resting her head on her hand.

“If you’re waiting for me to disagree with you, we might be here a while.” Domino gestures to Weasel, who pours her a glass of scotch.

Wade groans dramatically. “I really screwed the pooch on this. He’s perfect, and I’m never gonna find someone better than him. I’m never gonna get over him.”

“I’m still not really understanding why you dumped him in the first place. I mean, if he’s okay with your toxic waste disaster face, he’s already a keeper.” Weasel looks down at Wade with pity.

“Your kind words are doing wonders.” Wade buries his face in his hands. “I didn’t dump him because of him, I dumped him because of me. I don’t want to hurt him. My past is too messy, I can never erase it. The things I did. He could have someone normal. He could have a normal life.” He pauses, considering the fact that Peter is Spider-Man and Iron Man is his dad and Doctor Strange is basically his other dad. “Or at least more normal.”

Domino lets out a breath and puts a hand on Wade’s shoulder. “I think you should talk to him. Ideally, beg for him to take you back because let’s be honest here. I love you, man, but you’re an idiot and also you’re very annoying. You’re not ever going to find someone who loves you the way Peter does.”

Wade gasps, turning to look at her. “You think he ‘L-words’ me, Dom?”

“I don’t know how or why, but yeah.”

Wade considers it for a moment. “I just don’t think I’m good enough for him. He’s precious and pure and I would just contaminate him. I can’t be with him knowing that I’m keeping him from someone better, from someone who he deserves.” Wade had tried to take some jobs out of the country, but found that he was unable to pull the trigger. He just couldn’t bring himself to break his streak.

_Performance issues aren’t uncommon in men your age._

Domino pulls her hand away from Wade. “Maybe that’s not for you to decide.”

——

Wade goes back to Peter’s apartment that night, with no plan on what he’s going to say to Peter when he sees him. He knows that Peter’s going to be upset, and will probably tell him to fuck off, but he needs to try.

He jimmies the lock open with a knife and slides into the bedroom window. It’s dark in the room, and he cant see a single thing. Peter’s probably asleep. He wants to get in his bed and cuddle up next to him and is willing to deal with the repercussions of sneaking up on a super-powered dude that has a history of scaring easy.

But as he approaches the bed, his eyes adjust enough for him to see that there is no one lying there. There are no pillows, no sheets, no blankets. He goes to the living room area and turns the light on. The room is bare. Peter’s photos are no longer hung on the walls, the TV is gone, the couch is missing. It is only an empty room that screams at Wade. It screams that this is no longer Peter’s home, and it’s Wade’ fault. The room also screams that this is no longer Wade’s home. He lost that the second he closed the door on a crying Peter.

He lost everything in that moment.

——

Peter thinks he’s in the depression stage of the Kubler-Ross Model. He had to move back in to the Avengers compound because his apartment held too many reminders of the life he once had. It was too painful to sit on the couch they had snuggled up on, watching nature documentaries or fooling around. He couldn’t sleep in the bed he had lost his virginity in, under the covers that seemed to keep them safe from the rest of the world. He couldn’t stand to walk around in the place where Wade had first told Peter he loved him, to exist in the place that was once their home, and was now empty, cold, and lonely.

He hasn’t eaten for at least a day, and he can’t remember how many episodes of Degrassi he’s sat through since he last moved. He’s definitely not watching it, because it is decidedly terrible, but he doesn’t turn it off because it’s Canadian and dumb, just like Wade.

Fucking Wade Wilson. Why hadn’t he just stayed?

Peter brings the sleeve of the oversized sweater he’s wearing up to his nose and inhales the lingering scent of Wade. Peter lets his head drop back against his pillows as the ache of his beautifully painful memories wash over him. Memories of Wade showing up at Peter’s apartment bloody and injured, memories of Wade wearing the most ridiculous outfits just to get a laugh out of Peter, memories of Wade making Peter feel so good it made his brain short-circuit, memories of Wade telling Peter he loved him, without ever expecting to hear it back.

Why hadn’t Peter said it back?

Why hadn’t Peter told him exactly how he felt for him everyday? Why had Peter yelled at Wade for standing up for their relationship? Why had Peter gotten angry with Wade over the dumbest little things? Why hadn’t Peter woken him up every morning with a kiss? Why hadn’t Peter agreed with Wade’s idea for doing weekly family game nights? Why hadn’t Peter told Wade that he loved him?

Why hadn’t Peter made him stay?

He doesn’t even notice the tears that are streaming in hot trails down his face.

“I’m a fucking moron.”

A knock at the door pulls him back into reality. He doesn’t want to talk to whoever’s at the door. He doesn’t want them to see his red, puffy eyes. He doesn’t want to see the pity in theirs.

“Go away.”

But the door is being unlocked and pushed open.

“Pete, you haven’t gone outside in days. It smells awful in here.” Tony presses a button on the control panel and the blinds slide open. Peter hisses in pain as the light overwhelms his senses. “Come on, get up.”

Peter throws an arm over his eyes and groans, wishing Tony would just give up, but knows that he won’t. He feels the bed dip next to him, and Tony’s hand rests on Peter’s knee.

“I know this is hard, Peter. I know that you feel like it will never get better, but believe me, it will. And maybe… Maybe this will lead you down a new path, a better one. Steve leaving me hurt like a bitch, both emotionally and physically, but if he hadn’t left me, I probably would never have dated Stephen. And Stephen is the greatest thing to happen to me. Maybe you’ll meet someone new too. Or maybe not, maybe you’ll patch things up with Wade and everything will be okay. But you will be happy again, Peter. No matter what.”

Peter sniffles and he sits up to give Tony a hug.

Tony wraps his arms around Peter. “Wade is an idiot for leaving you, but he must have done something right for you to love him this much.” Peter doesn’t say anything, but silently, he agrees. Tony pulls back from Peter, holding his shoulders and looking into his face with sympathy. “Stephen wants us to meet him for lunch. Can you be ready in 5 minutes?”

Peter wipes his cheek with his sleeve and nods.

After lunch, the three of them go back to the Sanctum. As always, he’s wearing his wizard clothes. Wong is showing Peter some of the relics in the foyer while Tony and Stephen chat about their weekend plans. Seeing them together always makes Peter smile, but right now he just feels numb. Peter is exhausted and he just wants to take a nap.

As Wong is explaining the purpose of the Cauldron of the Cosmos, he is interrupted by music that is playing outside the Sanctum. Peter can barely hear it, like it’s being played off a cellphone, but he instantly recognizes it as _I Want To Know What Love Is_. He rolls his eyes as he realizes what’s happening. He pushes the Sanctum door open to reveal Wade clad in his Deadpool suit, holding his cellphone over his head, blasting Foreigner.

Fucking Wade Wilson.

——

Wade’s eyes widen slightly at the sight of Peter. He’s wearing one of Wade’s hoodies, his hair is disheveled, and his face speaks of restless nights and lots of crying. Peter’s eyes are sad and he almost looks angry. Wade can’t really tell what’s going through Peter’s head.

“Baby boy! I’m—”

Peter slams the door shut.

**What were you actually expecting to happen?**

Wade lunges forward, incessantly knocking on the glass window of the door. He wasn’t going to let Peter slip through his fingers so easily. Peter opens the door again and Wade can definitively read the irritation on Peter’s face.

“What the fuck do you want, Wade?” The venom in Peter’s voice (ha, Venom) is something Wade doesn’t think he could ever get used to. He had really messed Peter up by leaving him.

**You hurt him when you left, you’ll hurt him if you stay, you just can’t do anything right.**

_But you should totally stay. Make that cutie with a booty yours again._

“I want to know what love is, I want you to show me.” Peter doesn’t look amused at Wade’s antics. “I’m here to win you back, Petey! Whatever it takes.”

Peter ushers Wade outside, away from the prying eyes of the wizards and Tony. He closes the door and stabs a finger into Wade’s chest. “Win me back? You left, Wade. You left even when I begged you to stay. You decided that you weren’t good enough, and you left. Did you even once consider how I felt? Did it ever occur to you that maybe _I_ thought you were good enough for me? Or how much it would hurt to lose you? Probably not. Because you don’t think. You just do whatever the hell you want. I bet once I was out of the picture, you went right back to killing people for money—or just for kicks.”

For a moment, Peter looks shocked by the words that had come out of his own mouth, but he takes a breath and the anger bleeds back into his expression. Wade thinks maybe Peter didn’t mean the last part.

But he fears that maybe he did.

Wade pulls the mask off his face and looks into Peter’s eyes with sincerity, which seems to throw Peter off-guard for a second. “I didn’t, Peter. I swear to you. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I tried, but you were always there, telling me to find another way.” Wade sucks in a quivering breath. “I was good, Peter.”

Peter is quiet for a moment, but Wade notices how he clenches his jaw, and his hand squeezes into a fist, knuckles going white. “Screw this. Screw you, Wilson.” A tear streaks down Peter’s cheek, but Wade thinks it’s anger, not sadness. Peter turns away, opening the door to the Sanctum.

Now Wade knows how it feels, having the one thing you want most slip away.

Peter freezes and his shoulders tense. His head snaps back, looking around with wide eyes. Wade wonders what he’s looking for when a loud booming noise erupts from the sky, and Wade peers up to see a big floaty circle emerging from the clouds, hovering ominously above skyscrapers.

Stark, Doctor Strange, and the other wizard he’s never met rush outside, and people rush by, screaming and panicking.

Wade looks back down at Peter, whose eyes are wide and fixated on the ship. Worry spreads across his face.

“He’s here.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes!!!
> 
> I suggest Please Don't Go by Barcelona and All I Want by Kodaline for anyone who would like to suffer a bit more
> 
> thank you guys for being patient with my slow ass!! please leave a comment or message me on Tumblr (king-emmakate) c:
> 
> ALSO good luck on finals to anyone who is also on the shitty quarter system :///


	7. Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos is a fucking dick my dude, fuck that bald ass girthy bitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long with this chapter :((( but like Wade, I AM HERE NOW
> 
> now please suffer with me
> 
> (pretend to ignore the new archive warning pls)

“Hey, hey, hey! An evil flying cock ring is coming to destroy us! What a way to go.” Wade jokes, but he pulls out his pistols and takes a fighting stance, readying himself for imminent danger. Tony is telling his AI to ‘deploy 17 A’ and the wizards are doing some cool hand motions or spells or something. Peter looks the most threatening though. Although he’s standing there in jeans and a worn out sweater that’s too large for his frame, the dark rings under his eyes only serve to intensify the absolutely murderous look on his face. Although Wade knows he would never murder a fly.

“Peter, 3 seconds out.” Peter acknowledges Tony’s words by grunting. He looks over at Wade as he tears Wade’s hoodie right off of his chest with one hand and is immediately encapsulated in a metal Spidey suit. Wade knows that Peter meant it to hurt, with that defiant look in his eye as he ripped up Wade’s clothing, but something about Peter shredding his clothes off while making intense eye-contact was probably top ten on the list of things Wade is blessed to have experienced.

“Whoa.” Wade gapes at the new Spider-Man suit with admiration. That is definitely the coolest thing he had ever seen. The sleek metal emphasizes Peter’s muscles without making him look any bulkier. He’s certainly lean, but it works for him.

Then the ship is emitting a bright light, and two figures materialize on the street in front of the five of them. Wade takes one glance at the skinny one on the right and bursts into laughter. He steps forward, doing something weird with his hands, like a creepy minister or something.

“Hear me and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing to—”

“I’m sorry, Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get out of here.” Tony steps in front of Doctor Strange protectively, and Wade isn’t sure if he’s trying to protect the stone or the man.

The alien dude with the creepy nose gestures to Strange, who steps out from behind Tony. “Stone Keeper, does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not, I speak for myself. You are trespassing in this city and on this planet.” Strange activates his little mystical… circle shield thingies.

“That means get lost, Squidward!” Wade cackles, doubling over in laughter, and they all turn to look at him. How are they all so straight-faced? This is classic comedy. Well, maybe not classic. But definitely hilarious.

“He’s definitely more of a Voldemort’s-under-achieving-cousin.” Wade hears Peter’s exasperated sigh but elects to ignore it in favor of shooting first. “I’ve got Lizard Man!” He raises his pistols and fires at the big guy on the left. Nose guy simply waves his hand and the bullet suddenly makes a 90 degree turn directly into the ground. Lizard Man launches a big ass hammer right at Wade. Peter jumps in front of Wade, stopping it with his hands.

“Pay attention, Deadpool.” Peter’s tone is harsh and his sudden adoption of Wade’s alter ego makes Wade frown a bit, but his protective actions speak louder. Wade watches as Iron Man and Doctor Strange engage the warlock dude, and Spider-Man pulls the chain connected to the hammer forcefully, sending the scaled monster hurtling towards him. As he flies towards where Wade, wizard number two, and Peter are standing, he snatches Tony out of the air, launching him towards a building.

Doctor Strange and Voldemort are having a 1v1 showdown while Tony and Peter rough up the lizard man. Wade is standing at the ready while the chubby wizard at his side is pulling some weapon-like relic out, but both are unsure where to look, and what they should do to help. At the sound of civilians in trouble, Wade goes to help a women who is trapped in her car, which is covered in cement and debris. Upon getting her out, she thanks him and runs away.

“Pete, get Strange!” Wade turns to see Doctor Strange floating around, unconscious, being chased by Mr. Tentacles himself.

**This would be so much easier if you knew their names.**

_Yeah, you’d think the writer would just have them introduce themselves so she could just use their names instead of this weird shit._

“Yep, really dropped the ball on that one. You’ll get em next time, tiger.”

Peter swings off, following Stephen, as the big lizard guy turns to attack Wade and Tony.

“Wong, little help?” At Tony’s voice, Wong pulls his worried gaze away from Doctor Strange, and instead does some cool thing with portals, closing it in time to cut off the lizard monster’s big, meaty claws. Tony instantly blasts off, following Peter, who’s being beamed up to the ship.

Wade turns to Wong. “Think you could get me up there?”

Wong says nothing, and displays no emotion, but he circles his hand, opening a portal underneath Wade. Wade free falls for a second before he lands harshly on the exterior of the ship. The ship spins, throwing Wade off-balance. He loses his footing on the metal, and is suddenly tumbling towards the streets of New York. This was gonna hurt.

Wade hears the most wonderful sound in the world—next to Beyoncé’s voice—the _thwip_ of Peter shooting a web in Wade’s direction. It connects to his thigh, losing slack as Wade continues to descend, then snapping taut and effectively stagnating Wade in the air. Peter pulls him up effortlessly, finding an entrance to the interior of the ship, and throwing Wade inside. When the opening closes behind Peter’s lithe frame, Peter approaches where Wade is laying on the floor, a begrudgingly sticks out a hand. Wade takes it, heaving himself off the ground and stumbling into Peter’s arms, placing a hand on his chest for balance.

“Whiplash is a bitch, and I’m not talking about the shitty _Iron Man 2_ villain.” Wade tries to make light of the situation, because he thinks his proximity to an angry Spidey will only serve to escalate his rage. Instead, Peter seems a little taken aback, instinctively wrapping an arm around Wade’s waist to steady him. The nanotech mask recedes, revealing Peter’s face, which looks slightly dazed. He pulls his hands away and clears his throat before taking a step backward, away from Wade.

“Are you trying to get killed? That’s two now that you owe me.” Although it’s clear that Peter is frustrated, the sting that was in his tone earlier is gone, and his face looks more passive than aggressive. Wade thinks it’s improvement.

“You know I don’t stay dead, baby boy.”

“You don’t stay at all.”

_Ouch._

**I’m starting to really like this guy.**

Wade doesn’t know if Peter meant for it to hurt, because the words seem like they could be a slap, but Peter’s voice is so quiet and broken. He thinks maybe Peter didn’t intend to say it aloud. His expression betrays his feelings of abandonment and loneliness. Wade frowns.

“I always come back, Pete, always. And I’m back. I’m here for you. If you don’t want to get back together, that’s totally your choice. But please, don’t cut me out of your life. You’re the best thing in mine.”

For a moment, Peter looks endeared, like he thinks Wade is the cutest thing he’s ever seen. Then pain flashes back over his face. “I can’t let you back in if you’re just going to leave again. I can’t take that. You could stop loving me, you could cheat on me, you could do a number of awful things that would still hurt less than you being away from me. Not when I know you still love me. And not when I still—”

“What are you two doing here? I thought I told you to go home.” Tony’s voice drowns out Peter’s last words and effectively curtails the moment. Peter groans as he looks over at Tony.

“I’m not going to just sit around while Stephen is in trouble. I’m not a kid anymore, Tony. Besides, this is bigger than me, bigger than you. This is Thanos, and it’s better if I’m here to help stop him, and not just twiddling my thumbs back on Earth.” For the first time since Wade met him, Peter sounded mature. He sounded like an adult, and nothing had ever scared Wade more than hearing it. The maturity Peter was showing now was an obvious defense mechanism to convince himself that he was ready for the fight ahead, and clearly, he was not. None of them were.

“Well I guess since you’re here anyway, you might as well make yourselves useful. Stephen is being held and possibly tortured by that alien dude.” Tony walks them over to the ledge of the platform they’re standing on, gesturing down to where Stephen is being held, with weird crystal rods impaling his flesh. “What’s our plan?”

Peter thinks for a moment. “You ever see that really old movie, _Aliens_?”

 

* * *

 

They rescue Stephen with relative ease and after a bit of arguing between Tony and Stephen, they decide to bring the fight to Thanos on Titan. With the ship on autopilot, the four of them find themselves sitting in silence. Peter is sitting on the floor away from the others, tinkering with his web-shooters when Wade walks over to him. He plops down next to him with a long sigh. Peter doesn’t even look up to acknowledge his presence.

“I hope this doesn’t take too long, I can’t remember if I left the oven on or not.” The corners of Peter’s mouth twitch upward slightly, but instantly settle back into a frown.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes, all that matters is that we stop Thanos.” Peter wishes he were able to joke around with Wade right now, but the battle ahead definitely takes priority in his conscious mind, and he doesn’t think he has the mental capacity to crack jokes at this point.

“And that we look good doing it.” Wade turns to look at Peter. “Although you always look good, so you’ve got this in the bag.”

Peter opens his mouth, maybe to respond in a somewhat polite way, maybe to tell Wade to shut up, but he is silenced by the loud growl coming from his stomach. He looks down and slaps a hand to his abdomen, as if that will silence the rumbling. He didn’t even realize he was hungry until his stomach yelled it at him. Wade just blinks in surprise and starts rummaging through the pouches on his belt. He opens one and pulls out a Nature Valley bar, handing it over to Peter.

“Here, you’ve gotta get some calories in you.”

After a moment of hesitation, Peter accepts the bar. “Do you usually keep snacks in your belt?”

“No, of course not! That’s a weapon. You know, you can throw the crumbs into your enemy’s eyes. Works like a charm!” Peter giggles and he notices the way Wade almost freezes up at the sound, like he always used to. Like Peter’s laugh was noteworthy enough for Wade to stop everything just to appreciate it. It was always the little things like that that Peter had noticed and absolutely adored. It didn’t occur to Peter how many of those little mannerisms and quirks he loved and how much he loved them until Wade had left. In Wade’s absence, Peter realized a lot of things that he had never even noticed before. Suddenly, his apartment was much quieter, his bed was much colder, there was never breakfast waiting for him when he woke up, patrol wasn’t fun anymore, nobody sent him prequel memes, when he got sick he just had to suffer through it. It occurred to Peter that Wade had done so much for him that he didn’t even acknowledge. He had taken Wade for granted, and that’s not even why Wade had left. Wade leaving was just another way in which he was protecting Peter, at least in his mind. Because Wade always took care of Peter without expecting anything in return, just as he was doing now.

Wade left him, but he’s back, right when he was needed most.

Peter loves him. And he thinks that maybe it’s time to forgive Wade for walking out.

“But I’ve got a snack under my belt if you’re interested.” Wade wiggles his eyebrows at Peter, who rolls his eyes. Deciding to ignore the comment so as not to ruin the realization he just had, he goes to eat the Nature Valley bar, and of course, crumbs explode everywhere. But it tastes good and it hits the spot, so Peter’s not complaining.

Wade scoops crumbs off the floor and pours them back into his pouch. Peter shoots him a judgmental side-eye, to which Wade shrugs and mumbles, “You never know if you’ll need some tactical crumbs.”

Peter smiles up at Wade, getting the sudden urge to just curl up into his chest and cuddle with him, before they get to Titan. Who knows what’s going to happen when they get there? If they beat Thanos, or if they die trying, Peter knows there is no one in the world (any world, for that matter) he’d rather be next to.

It’s silent for a moment, but Peter can feel that Wade wants to say something. He doesn’t push him, he just lets Wade figure out what he’s trying to say.

Wade clears his throat and brings a hand up as if he’s going to touch Peter, but then sets it back down on his lap. “I, uh, I want to apologize again. I know there’s probably nothing I can say to change your mind, but I need you to know this. I think you can do better than me, and I think you deserve better than me.” Peter felt frustration boil up again. Wade really didn’t understand at all, he still didn’t. Peter opened his mouth to argue, but Wade held up a hand, silencing him. “But what you deserve isn’t my decision to make. If you think I’m good enough, then that’s enough for me. If you still want me, then that’s enough. You’re incredible, baby boy, and I can’t believe you chose me. But whatever you want, you deserve. Whether or not that’s me.”

Peter took Wade’s hands in his, and he could feel that he was on the brink of tears. His voice was quiet and raspy as he whispered, “It is.”

Wade’s eyes widened and he smiled sincerely. “I love you, Peter Parker-Stark.”

And then Peter’s crying, tears flowing freely from his eyes. He laughs and wraps his arms around Wade, aware of how tightly he’s holding him. Wade hugs back, just as hard, and Peter thinks for a moment that maybe they are both afraid of letting go. As long as they hold on to one another, they’re together, they’re safe, they’re real.

Peter doesn’t ever want to let go. Wade is back, and Peter is going to make sure he’s not going anywhere. “Goddamnit, Wade Wilson, I—”

“Sorry to break up… whatever’s going on here, but we are approaching the ground at a startling speed, and I could use your help, Peter.” When Peter turns to look at Tony, he does not try to hide the irritation on his face. Once he sees Tony’s apologetic expression though, he pulls away from Wade to see what he can do to help. As Peter walks over to the console, however, Wade slides his own hand into Peter’s, clearly not wanting to let go of him either.

“Put your hand in that side, I’ll put mine in this one, and we’ll see if we can try to land this thing as safely as possible.” Peter does as he’s told, inserting his hand into the contraption and closing it around his forearm. Tony grunts with the strain of trying to turn his side. “Or… at least let’s try not to completely destroy the ship and die.”

When they are unable to slow it down or figure out how to land, Stephen creates a protective shield around the four of them. Wade covers Peter’s body with his own, and Peter holds onto him tightly in case the impact of the crash separates them. The ship skids against the surface of the planet, causing the metal to be shorn from the exterior, and the inside of the ship shudders as the force of the collision starts to break the circular ship into multiple curved segments. Peter squeezes his eyes shut and just holds tight to Wade.

When the ship stills, Peter opens his eyes to look around at the mess of broken parts and shards of reinforced metal that surround him. No one seems to be injured, mostly because Stephen’s shield kept them from tumbling around or getting hit by debris.

Peter feels that familiar tingle at his spine, and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Someone’s coming.”

Wade pulls a pistol out of the holster on his thigh and looks around the ship. Suddenly, a man with a creepy metal mask, a woman with antennae, and a buff, shirtless, gray dude emerge from a hole in the ship. Then they’re attacking, the man in the metal mask flying around with rocket boots or something, shooting at Tony, who pursues him. The lady is chasing Peter down with the most unsettling expression on her face. He backs away, and Wade steps in front of him, trying to protect Peter. For a second, Peter thinks it’s cute and chivalrous but then the woman puts a hand on Wade’s forehead.

“Sleep.”

Wade collapses to the ground in fetal position, and Peter looks at him in disbelief. He immediately shoots webs at the woman, incapacitating her. She tumbles to the floor and struggles, but can’t free herself. Peter taps Wade with his foot, but he doesn’t stir. He then looks over to where Stephen and Tony are, and suddenly the man with the mask is grabbing Peter, holding some kind of gun or blaster to his head. Peter doesn’t move, as not to provoke the man who’s holding his life in his hands. He looks over to Tony, who has the big, muscular guy in a similar situation. Stephen is levitating off to the side, as if waiting for an opening.

Peter smiles uneasily. “Uh… truce?”

 

* * *

 

Wade looks in horror at the sight before him. Blood and bodies everywhere. What had he missed? Had there been some kind of accident? A fight? He can’t even begin to imagine. He hears a groaning sound, and looks up to see a hoard of humanlike monsters shuffling towards him. He thinks they could be zombies, but he doesn’t want to stay long enough to find out. He begins to run, but it feels slow, like he’s being held back or as if he’s running through water. The creatures gain on him, and he looks down, noticing that he’s in regular clothes and doesn’t seem to have a weapon on him. They surround him, and they look like they’re ready for a snack. He holds his hands in front of him in defense and squeezes his eyes closed, as if they will go away if he can’t see them.

“Please, not the face!”

“Uh…Wade?”

It’s Peter’s voice, and he opens his eyes. There are no monsters anymore, but crouching in front of him is the woman from earlier, and Peter stands to the side of her, looking upon Wade with pity. Peter helps him stand up, and he now sees Tony arguing with that buff dude and the other guy from before, but without the mask on, Wade can see that he’s a pretty guy.

**Better keep him away from Peter.**

Off to the side, floating above some wreckage, Doctor Strange is sitting cross-legged and doing something very odd, but when is he not? Wade takes in the wide expanse of sand and ruins that seems to make up the surface of this planet.

“This place is an absolute dump. Looks like a litter box for the lions of Voltron.”

“This is Thanos’s home planet. Probably means he has some lame backstory that’s supposed to make us feel sympathetic for him. We know he’s going to wipe out half of the universe, as Deadpool number 2 told us way back when, but maybe this place is his reason why.”

“Well he’s a bad guy, so he has to tell us his backstory and his diabolical plan, Petey. Those are the rules.”

Wade follows Peter over to where Tony and the other strange people are standing. They seem to be in the middle of a conversation about dance-offs or something.

Peter butts in. “Like in _Footloose_? The movie?”

The blonde man turns to Peter. “Exactly like in _Footloose_! Is it still the greatest movie in history?”

Peter shrugs. “It never was.”

Wade steps up next to Peter, crossing his arms over his chest and maybe flexing just a bit. “Actually Deadpool 2 is the greatest movie in history, and you can go see it in theaters today.”

The guy doesn’t respond to Wade’s comment, and instead just turns away from him to continue talking to Tony, which irritates Wade slightly. He turns toward the other man and the woman.

“For the sake of the author and because I’ve been napping for a moment, what are your names?”

The ripped guy pokes a thumb into his own chest. “I am Drax the Destroyer, the twig-like woman is Mantis, and the dude who likes to dance is called Peter Quill.” He says ‘dance’ with disgust, as if it is some kind of insult.

“Peter? That’s not going to work out. You got a nickname?”

“You can call me Star-Lord.” He says the name intensely, like it’s some really cool title. Wade ignores him.

They group continues to talk, he thinks they’re making a plan, but Wade zones out, instead focusing on Peter’s face. It’s so beautiful, and he realizes in that moment just how much he missed seeing it when he woke up in the morning. He loves his Spidey so much, and if Thanos is able to do what he’s attempting, he might never see that pretty, innocent face again. Peter is listening to what ‘Star-Lord’ is saying, and throwing in his two cents every once in a while, but Wade only notices the muted fear in Peter’s eyes, the stiffness of his shoulders. He wishes he could take Peter away from here, go home and just hold him. But he knows that Peter needs to be here. He needs to see the end of this, no matter the outcome. He reaches over to hold Peter’s hand, and he feels Peter squeeze his fingers, as if Wade’s hand was a lifeline.

Wade notices Star-Lord’s glance towards where their hands are joined, but he says nothing. Drax smiles at them, and it’s a little creepy.

 

* * *

 

T’Challa calls out all of his troops, and they stand in formation on the expanse of impossibly green grass. The Jabari tribe has chosen to stand beside them, an action that fills T’Challa with a sense of pride for Wakanda. They will not fail today.

Steve Rogers had explained what was happening, went through the whole story about a different dimension or something, and a powerful being from another galaxy, but T’Challa was still not so sure about this whole thing. Who was this strange alien woman? And what of these four-legged beasts that seemed intent on throwing themselves on the shield?

No matter. They were ready for a fight. Wakanda would not fall today. And if Stark is unable to stop Thanos?

Let him come.

 

* * *

 

Wade was right. Thanos was going to tell his whole backstory and his diabolical plan. When he had first arrived, Peter was overwhelmed with a sense of fear. He was paralyzed, and every terrible thought and possible outcome flashed through his mind. But now, as he hid among the wreckage of a fallen empire, only resolution settled over Peter. He realized that it may have been the fact that fear would not help him take down Thanos that had gotten him to get a grip. That, or the fact that Wade was crouched off to his right, and Peter could practically feel his determination coming off of him in waves. Before they had gone into their respective hiding spots, Wade had given Peter such a passionate kiss that he felt his knees go weak. He also heard Tony making a fake gagging noise to Stephen behind him, but he elected to ignore it.

And now, here Thanos was, talking smugly down to Stephen, who seemed calm—at least at surface level. Peter had a sneaking suspicion that those 14,000,605 possible outcomes he had seen had taken their toll on Stephen. He can’t even imagine how he’d feel if he had to watch the people he cared about die in awful ways on loop. Probably broken. Probably drained. But Stephen had put on a brave face, and now they could only hope that the odds were in their favor.

Hearing the signal, everyone comes out of their hiding spots, honing onto the big, meaty raisin in front of them. Peter feels only exhilaration as he swings through the air, watching Star-Lord fire blasters at Thanos, or Drax and Wade coming in to slice at the backs of his legs, or Stephen and Tony attacking in tandem, as if they were on the same wavelength, but as soon as his own foot comes into contact with the side of Thanos’s head, he knows this is going to be harder than it looks. As he attacks, he feels only power and control underneath his hands, as if their attacks were mosquito bites to Thanos. He swats at Peter, grabbing him around the neck. He feels small, inconsequential in his hand. He feels like with a little bit of pressure, his neck could be snapped in an instant.

There is disgust in Thanos’s eyes, and Peter feels like he is nothing in that spiteful gaze. “Insect.”

Wade comes around to throw something into Thanos’s eyes, which Peter suspects is Nature Valley crumbs. He drops Peter and Wade helps him back onto his feet. Peter can hear the smirk in Wade’s voice as he whispers, “Tactical crumbs.”

Peter’s spidey-sense screams, and pulls Wade and himself out of the way as a ship crashes right into Thanos. A blue woman with a bald head crawls out.

“You should have killed me.” She swipes at him with a sword, and he bats her aside with his arm.

“Would have been a waste of parts!”

Peter immediately springs up, shooting lines of web onto Thanos’s arms and back, pulling, pulling, trying to hold him back. Tony is pulling on the gauntlet on his left hand as Stephen opens a portal above Thanos’s head. Mantis falls directly onto his shoulders, wrapping her hands around his large head.

“Be quick, he is very strong!”

He is lulled into a trance, but his body is still fighting. Peter jumps over to help Tony, but the gauntlet is firmly secured on his hand.

“I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh?” Star-Lord sounds cocky, almost smug, but then his face and his voice drops to something more serious, more intense. “Where's Gamora?”

Thanos’s eyes roll around in his head, his expression tortured. “My Gamora…”

“Oh bullshit! Where is she?”

“He… He is in anguish. He mourns.” Mantis’s voice is strained and her face echoes the emotions on Thanos’s face.

“What does this monster have to mourn?”

“I mean the cankles are a tragedy for sure.” Everyone ignores Wade’s comment.

The blue lady steps forward, a sad but resolved look on her face. “Gamora… He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone, she didn’t.” Peter wonders from the sadness in her voice who this woman is in relation to Gamora. A friend maybe? A sister?

Tony pulls harder but looks over to Star-Lord. “Okay, Quill? You gotta cool it right now, understand? Don’t. Don’t engage. We almost got this off!”

The words seem lost upon him, as he doesn’t even look over at Tony or pause. “Tell me she’s lying. You asshole! Tell me you didn’t do it.”

Thanos croaks, “I had to…”

Quill’s voice is soft as he looks Thanos in the eyes. “No, you didn’t…” And then the rage settles in. “No! No you didn’t!”

His fists are flying, colliding with Thanos’s face, shaking Mantis loose and bringing him back to consciousness. Tears stream down his face as he beats Thanos, and Peter feels the gauntlet slipping free before Thanos catches it with his fingers, ripping it away from Peter and securing it back onto his hand. They are all knocked back with a blast of energy. Tony and Stephen go in to attack again. Thanos pulls an entire moon down from the sky. Rock rains down onto them all, but a large piece lands directly on Tony. Peter’s breath catches, but he has no time to help Tony as he notices that everyone else has been knocked into the air. Peter swings around, catching bodies as they start to descend, making sure they are safely deposited on the ground. He looks back in time to see Stephen being knocked to the ground. Tony moves in, pounding Thanos in the face, doing things with his suit that Peter has never seen before.

Thanos swipes a thumb against his cheek. “All that for a drop of blood.” Then he’s on the assault, punching Tony again and again, breaking his helmet twice. Peter is running, jumping over debris, trying to get to Thanos.

_Faster. Faster, Peter. Faster, Spider-Man._

Tony stabs at Thanos with a blade on the arm of his suit. Thanos catches his arm, snapping the blade off and turning it towards Tony.

_Come on, Peter._

Peter hears the sickening squelch of the blade stabbing into Tony’s stomach. Tony stumbles backwards and coughs.

_Faster, Parker-Stark._

“You have my respect, Stark. When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you.” Thanos lifts his arm, to deliver a final blow.

“Dad! NO!” Peter launches himself onto Thanos’s back with enough power to make him lose his balance slightly. Something inside of Peter snaps. He crawls onto Thanos’s shoulders, wrapping his legs tightly around his neck.

Peter screams as he brings his fists and elbows down onto Thanos’s head. Blow after blow, harder, _harder._ More.

_Kill him._

He doesn’t stop until he feels Thanos go limp beneath him. His body collapses, bringing Peter down with him and Peter simply lies on the ground, looking down at his hands, that are now covered in blood.

Thanos doesn’t move. He doesn’t make a sound.

Peter knows Thanos is dead.

Peter knows he’s killed Thanos.

He sobs, and feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see Tony’s face. The wound on his stomach is closed up. Peter lets out a shaky breath.

“I… I killed him, Tony.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shhh its okay we're in the home stretch now ladies and gents hold onto your butts
> 
> OKAy I love Nebula, she makes my bi heart flutter and I relate to her so hard so you know I had to put her in this story. I was thinking about what a cute ship Nebula and Mantis would be because they're so opposite but I definitely won't incorporate that in this... I aint got time fo that
> 
> also... the drummer from Echosmith slid into my DMs today? this is not relevant in any way but it was really weird so I felt the need to share
> 
> as always, I appreciate comments/questions/concerns my Tumblr is king-emmakate, feel free to stalk or bother me :) thank you guys for being so nice and supportive I PROMISE THERE IS A HAPPY ENDING MY DEARS


	8. Something More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Wade come home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wait what?? I'm uploading again?? crazy....
> 
> enjoy the finale of this journey.

“I killed him, Tony.”

Peter’s voice is broken, his face looks absolutely wrecked. The weight of the statement sinks in. 

To Wade, taking a life is more like a transaction. Some people are good, but some asshats just decide to fuck everyone else over. And Wade has made his living off of weighing their worth to society, and playing judge, jury, and executioner—taking the privilege of life away from those particular people he deemed unfit for being alive. In the past he didn’t even think twice about it. His morality was based on the belief that the world is better off with one less douchebag in it. Besides, everyone dies eventually. What’s the problem with speeding the process up for a couple people here and there?

Peter, on the other hand, had an entirely different view. To him, everyone had potential to be good, even Wade. He believed in redemption, in good will. A life was an nonnegotiable term. That’s why he strived so hard to save everyone, and why it was so important to him that Wade change his ways. Life was a priceless thing.

And here Peter was, blood on his face and hands, looking down at them in horror and shame. Wade knows Thanos is the worst guy ever, and that he was going to kill Tony, but Peter never wanted it to come to this. Compromising his morals meant discarding his humanity, and that is exactly what Peter had done.

Or… at least that’s what he thinks.

“Hate to break it to you, baby boy, but I think that point goes to me and Baldy over here.”

Peter looks up, turning towards Wade. His eyes widen at the blade that Wade pulls out of Thanos’s chest, and then they flick over to where Nebula has abandoned a sword that is protruding from Thanos’s back. There’s blood… everywhere. It’s a little gross, even for Wade’s standards.

“You… You guys killed him?” There’s hope and disbelief in his tone. Wade doesn’t actually know the answer to that. He doesn’t know what actually ended Thanos, but he knows that Peter wouldn’t be the same if he thought he had killed someone, so he thought it was much safer for Peter to think Wade was responsible.

“Yup! Saw you beating the snot out of him and we made a little double-penetration plan. Pretty proud of us actually, you’re welcome, universe! Although if Squirrel Girl could beat him I don’t see why we—”

Peter crashes into Wade, hugging him tight and shoving his face into Wade’s neck. He feels Peter’s tears soaking through his suit, but he can also feel Peter’s smile. He pulls back, taking Wade’s mask off to look into his eyes. Wade feels his heart jump with the intensity on Peter’s face.

“I love you, Wade Wilson.”

 

* * *

 

Steve holds up an injured Vision. He thinks the ‘Children of Thanos’ are all dead, and he can hear Thor and the rest containing the four-legged aliens out on the field in the distance. With the shape everyone is in currently, he worries about how Tony is holding up against the most powerful being in the universe. He hopes he’s okay. He hopes they all are. He’d never be able to forgive himself if Tony died on some foreign planet because Steve wasn’t there to help him. Because Steve was no longer someone Tony trusted. He knows it’s his fault that they aren’t even friends anymore, but he never wanted it to be this way. And maybe it was the lack of closure from them never having an official break-up, but Steve knows that Tony still has so much of his heart. And he always will.

Vision smiles, breaking into a airy, but pained chuckle. Steve thinks he’s lost his marbles at this point.

“What’s going on, Vision?”

His smile widens as he looks up at Steve. “Thanos is dead. Captain Rogers, we’ve won.”

 

* * *

 

Peter never thought he’d miss this so much. The sound of New Yorkers yelling at each other, the smell of greasy food and gasoline, and the sight of city lights that seem to block out the stars. For once, Peter doesn’t wish he could see the stars. He doesn’t dream of another place, another circumstance, another life. He dreams of his bed, comforted by the lights of New York City and the feeling of familiarity that surrounds him now.

He knows that tomorrow night will present a new issue: what to do with the infinity stones to ensure they do not fall into the wrong hands again. Somewhere in his mind he is aware of it and even worries about it, but most of his brain is occupied by the intense need to go to sleep. He feels his bed calling to him.

Tony is at the steering wheel, with Stephen in the passenger seat, and Peter and Wade are seated in the back. Peter stares out the window, but he can feel Wade’s eyes on him. His hand comes to rest on Peter’s wrist, and the contact is greatly calming. He loves Wade. And he will tell him a million times more, until Wade finally understands what there is to love about himself.

As they pull into the compound, Tony looks into the rearview mirror, catching Peter’s eyes. “I have a little surprise for you two tomorrow morning. What time do you think you can be up?”

Wade looks over at Peter and frowns. “Does it have to be in the morning? I don’t think I’ll be able to wake myself up for at least 12 hours.” He fakes a snoring sound and then slumps over onto Peter, who laughs and shoves him away.

“We’ll be ready by 10. Double digits should be late enough for Wade.”

Wade shrugs and turns back to the window. Peter notices how Wade’s eyes light up at the sight of the Avengers symbol. No matter how many times he’s here, or how many times he is around the Avengers, he still seems like he can’t believe it. Like he’s a kid in a candy store. The thought makes Peter smile, but it’s a bittersweet smile. Peter knows how much Wade wishes he were an Avenger. Although Peter wasn’t technically an Avenger himself, he was basically accepted into their little family. He went on missions with them every once in a while and they all liked him. Wade, on the other hand, was often dismissed as being a superhero—or even a good person. When he was in the compound, most people seemed to either ignore him or regard him with suspicion. Peter had wanted to talk to them about it, but Stephen had told him to give it time—that people would come to like him on their own. Stephen—although irritated by him at times—had always seemed to genuinely believe that Wade could change people’s perceptions of him, and possibly even become an Avenger, if he wished to. Peter hoped Stephen was right.

Once he and Wade were in Peter’s room, Peter collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. His mind barely registered Wade trying to figure out how to remove Peter’s suit. It sort of just rolled off of him andformed into a small square. Nanotechnology was officially super awesome. Once his suit was off, Wade went to the closet to look for pajamas for Peter. He pulled out a big t-shirt that had definitely belonged to Wade at one point, but like many of his clothes, had made their way into Peter’s possession. He held it up for Peter to look at.

“I can’t believe you stole this from me. You heartless thief.” Peter shrugs guiltily and Wade laughs. “You are literally so cute. How are you mine?” He throws the shirt to Peter, and Peter puts it on and then shuffles under the covers.

“Probably because you have money and a big dick.” Peter yawns. “Or maybe because you’re actually a catch. Funny, attractive, dorky, and you’ve got a big dick.”

Wade rolls his eyes theatrically. “Men only want one thing.” Wade puts on pajamas and crawls into bed next to Peter, putting an arm around him. Peter lays his head down on Wade’s broad chest and sighs.

“This is how it’s supposed to be. You and me, together. Okay, idiot?” There is only fondness in his voice as he puts a hand over Wade’s heart. He can feel it beating fast.

“Yes sir!” Wade kisses the top of Peter’s head.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

Peter punches Wade’s arm softly and chuckles. “Goodnight, Han Solo.”

“Actually I was quoting Leia in _Return of the Jedi_ , Peter. Come on. You know Leia is my girl.”

Peter chuckles, and kisses Wade on the nose. “Yup, definitely dorky.”

 

* * *

 

In the morning, Tony brews coffee for Peter and Wade, who sit at the marble-top peninsula. Wade was never a huge fan of coffee or alcohol for that matter because his healing factor cancelled out their effects. He figured the taste wasn’t too bad, but he definitely wasn’t one of those weird coffee fanatics that owned shirts with coffee puns on them. He preferred his shirts with cat puns, thank you very much.

He puts a generous amount of sugar and cream into his cup, smiling at Peter, who takes his coffee black. Wade takes this chance to just admire Peter—those pretty eyes that look up at him devilishly while giving him a blow job, those soft lips that give him a hell of a blowjob, that curly, messy hair that he loves to have tugged while he’s giving Wade a blowjob. Of course, Wade loves the non-blowjob parts too. Like his spleen. He’s not sure what a spleen is or what it does, but he thinks it’s not a necessary component of giving or receiving a blowjob. He also loves Peter’s brain—it worries too much, and holds too much information about chemistry, but it also knows how to give a hell of a blowjob!

**What a disgusting man you are.**

_This is his version of romance._

Peter notices the look Wade’s giving him and turns away quickly, clearly not wanting to give in to Wade’s mystical powers of seduction. Sam shuffles into the kitchen, probing the cupboards for something to eat.

“Wouldn’t be a bad idea to sound-proof Peter’s room as well, Stark.” Sam rolls his eyes, obviously irritated that Peter wasn’t the only person Wade kept awake with his mad stroke game. Wade smirks as he glances over to Peter, who has buried his face into his arms on the table, trying and failing to hide his blush. Tony shoots an irritated glance at Sam, who ignores his death glare.

“Wait, what do you mean, as well?” Wade ponders, wondering what other rooms they had sound-proofed.

“Oh, Stark had to sound-proof his room too, due to popular demand.” Sam chuckles, taking a granola bar and a banana from the kitchen and exiting the room before Tony can punish him.

Tony doesn’t look at Peter or Wade, but he grabs his travel mug and car key, and starts to walk out of the room. “I’ll go get the car ready.”

Once Tony’s out of earshot, Peter starts giggling, the sound muffled by his arms. Then he leans back, laughing unabashedly, and Wade, like always, treasures the sound. Peter’s laughter was magical. Wade thinks he might have fell in love with that laugh first. Or his ass. Both are great.

Peter looks over to Wade, starts laughing again, and Wade can’t help but laugh with him. “I told you someone would hear us, Wade.”

“I mean, how could they not? _Ah, Wade, harder!_ ” Peter smacks Wade’s arm and Wade laughs.

They go out to the car, where Tony is waiting for them. Happy is in the driver’s seat, however. Tony had revealed next to nothing about this sudden outing, but when they get in the car, he turns to Peter and says, “I’ve been looking for a new place for you since you left the old apartment. I mean if you wanted to stay at the compound, that would’ve been okay too, but I had a feeling that you’d want to go get back into the world. Now that you two are presumably back together, I figured you could both look at it and decide what you think about it.”

“You don’t have to keep doing this stuff for me, Tony. I’m an adult and I’m supposed to be able to do this kind of stuff by myself.” Peter sounds determined, maybe a little embarrassed that his dad is taking over this kind of stuff. Wade would probably feel the same way in Peter’s position—his dad paid rent for his apartment, gave him a job at Stark Industries, and still hasn’t made him an Avenger. He understands Peter’s frustration with the way he’s treated like a child. Still, he wishes that he had had a family that supportive and helpful. Wade didn’t have a particularly desirable childhood, and he was forced to grow up a lot earlier than Peter was. Peter was Wade’s family. Tony was still on his guard around Wade, and although Stephen seemed to think better of Wade than Tony did, Wade knows Stephen wouldn’t even call Wade a friend, much less consider him as part of the family.

Even though Wade wishes various parts of his life were drastically different, sitting here in the car with Peter and his dad (and Happy), going to look at an apartment that he and Peter could potentially live together in, he figures something has gone incredibly right. Peter is his boyfriend, Thanos is dead, and Lando Calrissian is going to be in Episode IX. Things are good.

When they pull into a driveway, Happy leans out the window and punches in a code into a number pad connected to an intercom. As the gates of the parking garage slowly slide open, Wade takes the chance to glance around the street. All he can see are nice apartment buildings, coffee shops, a yoga place, and little hipster shops. He can tell this is a nice part of town— definitely expensive, but also, probably safe. Meaning he wouldn’t have to worry about Peter having another creepy neighbor that collected very illegal and extremely immoral videotapes. Which would also mean Peter would not have to worry about Wade wanting to kill said neighbor because ‘prison is not good enough for soulless fucks like that.’ Also maybe the landlord would let them get a cat.

The cars in the parking garage are swanky; everything about this place screams swanky. Wade spots multiple Teslas, a Maserati, a Rolls-Royce, and a Ford Model A—which is a crappy car by modern standards, meaning whoever owned it probably bought it for funsies, so they had to have some real numbers. Happy pulls the white Audi into an empty spot and Wade notices how uncomfortable Peter looks as he gazes upon the expensive cars in front of him. Happy stays in the car as the three of them walk amongst rows of wealth on wheels.

Once they get inside the elevator, Tony puts a key into a slot and presses the button for the top floor—the penthouse. Wade has plenty of money. He would consider himself to be a rich person, even though his income has greatly decreased since he stopped taking kill contracts. But as soon as those reflective doors slide open, he feels his bank account weep for mercy. Of course to someone like Tony Stark, this place was average at best.

They step into the high-ceilinged foyer, the clicks of their heels echoing across the room. On the opposite end of the space, there is a large window, looking out upon New York, the ocean visible off to the right. While Tony points out different amenities in the penthouse—which is open-concept— Peter gravitates towards the window, looking out among the bustle of the city. He seems mesmerized by the sight, kind of like how the sight of Peter is mesmerizing Wade.

“It’s… beautiful.” Peter whispers and Tony looks over, finally noticing Peter’s transfixion. The smile on Tony’s face is soft, and he seems relieved to see Peter enjoying the view, like he can’t believe they’re actually alive, and back home in New York City. “We’ll take it.”

“I’m glad to hear that, because I’ve already started renting it, your name is on the lease, and here are the only two keys to the place. Movers will come by today with your things, but in the meantime, explore. I’ll see you two tonight at the compound. Happy will pick you up from here at 7.” And with that, Tony gets into the elevator and leaves.

Peter and Wade stare at each other dumbfounded for an entire minute before Peter finally says, “Wanna take a nap?”

 

* * *

 

When he wakes up, Peter checks the time on his phone, and sees texts from his Ned and Michelle asking where he’s been and if he’s okay. He sends them a gif of BB-8 doing a thumbs-up and tells them he’ll explain later. There’s missed phone calls and a voicemail from Aunt May. Peter listens to it, the worry in May’s voice breaking his heart. He calls her back immediately, and she picks up within the first ring.

“Peter?” There’s hope and disbelief in her voice, and Peter realizes how much he’s missed her, how much he needed to hear her again.

“I’m okay, May. Are you busy right now?” Peter glances over at Wade, who’s started to wake up. Wade yawns and sits up, resting his head on Peter’s shoulder.

“No, why?”

“I’ve just… really missed you. Can I come over?”

“Of course! You’re always welcome, Peter. You know that.” Peter can hear the smile on May’s face through the excitement in her voice. He wonders if May has missed him as much as he’s missed her. Probably more.

“Is it okay if I bring a friend?” Wade chuckles next to him and Peter smacks his thigh.

“Yes, of course! Are you hungry? I’ll make something. Or I could order in. Actually, I’ll just order Thai.”

“Thanks May. I’ll see you in half an hour. Love you.”

“I love you too, Peter. See you soon.” Peter hangs up the phone and Wade turns to look up at him.

“So I’m just ‘a friend’ then?” Wade sneers but Peter ignores it, grinning at the man he has totally and completely fallen for.

 

* * *

 

When Peter steps out of the taxi, he stares up at May’s new house in wonder. With the extra money Tony had been sending her way, she was able to buy an actual house, which was kind of crazy for someone living in New York City. It was nice—a modest craftsman with a home-y vibe. He and Wade walked up the brick pathway to the stone steps of the porch. Wade hesitated, looking down at his shoes.

“What’s wrong?”

Wade glanced up, a look of mild surprise upon his face. He rubbed his bicep awkwardly, clearly feeling great discomfort with the situation.

“I just… What if she doesn’t like me? What if she doesn’t think I’m worthy of you? I mean I don’t exactly have the most family-friendly face or personality. What if she thinks I’m just the worst?” Wade’s voice is small, and he avoids meeting Peter’s eyes.

“She’s not going to, Wade, trust me.”

“But what if she does?” His raises his voice and looks up at Peter with an expression of muted panic.

“Hey, listen to me,” Peter reaches out a hand, cupping Wade’s cheek very gently. “If for some unfathomable reason she decides she doesn’t like you, it won’t matter, because I _love_ you. Okay? But come on, she’s a Parker, she’s going to love you.”

Wade gives Peter a soft smile and nods, turning to face the front door. Peter raises an arm and raps his knuckles against the heavy oak door. Within moments, May is swinging the door open, a wide smile upon her face as she leaps across the threshold to hug Peter tightly. Peter chuckles and holds her, relishing in the feeling of being in her presence. Even the smell of her clothes seem to calm Peter.

When May pulls away from Peter, she looks over to Wade, who forces a smile and chokes out, “Hi Aunt May, I’m Wade, it’s nice to—”

May cuts him off by suddenly hugging him tightly as well. Wade glances over to Peter for a moment, as if in shock, before he returns the hug in full-force.

She pulls away, smiling at the both of them before ushering them inside and toward the dining room table, where many boxes of Thai food are set out, along with silverware and plates. Peter looks around the room and whistles. It’s a nice house, but May’s personal touches have definitely made it more-so. Behind the table there is a bookshelf stacked with books of different sizes along with knick-knacks and figurines that May appears to have purchased from an antique store. Her goal was apparently to seem well-traveled and well-read, although it doesn’t slip by Peter that her bookshelf is mostly full of pop-culture fiction, including the _Harry Potter_ series and _Star Wars_ novels. On a smaller table off to the side, there lies an open photo album that only contains pictures of Spider-Man and Iron Man, and Peter smiles, remembering making it for her a couple Christmases ago.

They sit down to eat and Peter tells May all about what happened in the past 2 days, cutting out some of the more… violent parts. She listens intently and keeps her gasps and sympathetic looks to a minimum.

“So really, the universe has Wade to thank for getting rid of Thanos.” Peter smiles at Wade, knowing that Wade will find that kind of praise extremely embarrassing. As if on cue, Wade shrinks in his seat and splutters, waving his hands wildly in what Peter assumes is supposed to be a dismissive manner, but he knows it’s too late. May is looking over at Wade with kind eyes, and she reaches out to take ahold of one of Wade’s hands.

“Thank you Wade, for protecting my nephew, and for saving half the universe.” Her tone is so gentle and full of admiration that it makes Wade blush. Peter stifles a giggle.

“It was nothing! I mean I couldn’t let Peter take all the glory, could I?”

They settle into a kind of comfortable air, Peter and Wade bicker jokingly over dumb things and May laughs at the two of them, making sure to tell them they are ridiculous. When they finish their food, Wade stands up to collect the dishes and take-out boxes.

“Oh, Wade, you don’t have to do that, I’ll clean them up.” She smiles at him but he shakes his head.

“I insist, Mrs. Parker. Let me. It’s the least I can do after you’ve invited me to your lovely home.”

Peter wonders why Wade was never this excited to do chores when they lived together before. As Wade washes the dishes in the kitchen, Aunt May leans in close to Peter and whispers, “He’s a keeper, Peter. Good job on that one.”

Peter looks at her in confusion for a second before chuckling. “Leave it to May Parker to figure out in an hour what it took me years to figure out.”

“So you _larb_ him?” Aunt May laughs at her own joke, but Peter just stares dreamily at Wade’s back while he throws the boxes in the trash.

“Yeah… yeah, I do.”

As it nears 7, Peter and Wade decide it’s time to go back home, so that they won’t keep Happy waiting too long. They bid farewell to May, getting lots of hugs and kisses in return, and hop into their taxi.

“You were right, Petey, she’s great.” Wade sounds so happy that it makes Peter’s heart soar.

“And I told you she would love you, you big goof.” Peter gives Wade a quick kiss, feeling uncomfortable in the company of a cab driver.

 

* * *

 

The compound seems to be bursting with Avengers, and also a few guests. People Peter has never seen before all sit at a table with the king of Wakanda, all with very serious and deadly expressions on their faces. There is a girl who looks about Peter’s age sitting right beside T’Challa, tapping away at a tablet, ignoring what was going on around her.

Natasha, Sam, Steve, and Bucky all sit at a table together, Rhodes, Wong, and Stephen are chatting together near the wall, and the Guardians of the Galaxy sans Peter Quill and Nebula raid the food table. Wade and Peter find a table near the back, and Peter notices that Tony is nowhere to be seen. Thor and Bruce walk into the room, Thor barking a laugh at something Bruce said while Loki follows behind them silently. Peter takes note of Wanda and Vision’s absence.

Tony finally shows up in the front of the room, standing behind a glass podium, somehow, he wordlessly gathers everyone’s attention.

“So. Thanos is dead.” There was applause. “Which means we now have the 6 infinity stones to take care of. King T’Challa, you agreed on protecting the reality stone within the country of Wakanda.” T’Challa nods, so Tony continues. “And Thor has agreed to watch over the space stone. Stephen will of course continue to protect the time stone. Vision has the mind stone. Star-Lord and Nebula have taken the soul stone back to Vormir in hopes of reviving the woman who was sacrificed for it. That leaves the power stone. We are left with two options. To safeguard the stone here on Earth, where we can protect it to the best of our abilities, or to send it away from Earth, hoping it does not end up in the wrong hands, but possibly sparing Earth from an attack to retrieve it. I leave it to a vote.”

The majority voted to harbor the power stone on Earth, but the decision was tough. Nobody wore an expression of certainty, and it seemed as if almost everyone in the room could not see a future in which the stones were not sought out again. The mood of the room was heavy, and Peter glanced over at Wade, who looked worried.

“Then it’s settled. We will keep it in a private location, known only to the members of the Avengers.” Tony takes a breath and continuea, “And on that note, we have to welcome a few new members. Drax, Groot, Rocket, and Mantis, you have all proven yourselves in the past two days along with the other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, so I extend you all a welcome to our team.” Tony coughs. “I would also like to offer that position to you, James.”

Bucky looks up at Tony, a look of surprise on his face. Steve also looked shocked, but his expression quickly melts into a smile. Bucky nods and Tony gives Bucky the closest thing to a smile that Peter thinks he could muster at the present time.

“But above all, I would like to acknowledge two people who have been continuously pushed aside by the Avengers and denied a place amongst us. These people we have not taken seriously for too long, yet when the universe was faced with the biggest threat we’ve ever seen, they both rose to the occasion, and overcame every challenge. For this I must extend my thanks; it is because of them that we are all here today.” Tony clears his throat and looks at Peter, a flicker of pride clear in his eyes. Peter feels a tear on his cheek, and he smiles shakily up at Tony. Everyone in the room seemed to have turned to look back at Peter and Wade, all with expressions of gratitude and admiration apparent on their faces. He feels Wade grab his hand, and his heart feels like it’s going to explode. His eyes meet Wade’s and they hold the anticipation that Peter can feel in his chest.

It was only a day ago that Peter wondered if those moments were his last. If the last face he would see would be Thanos’s, full of rage and determination. If the last sounds he would hear would be the dying breaths of his dad, or of the man he loved. He wondered if he would ever see his aunt, his city, his home again. He wondered if he would ever feel happiness again. But today, even with the new threat of 6 infinity stones to worry about, he realizes that he will always come back. No matter what happens, he can overcome it. As long as he has these people in his life, as long as he has hope that he can win, he will do it. Whatever the universe has to throw his way, he can do it.

“Peter Parker-Stark, Wade Wilson. Welcome to the Avengers.”

Hell, be an Avenger? He can do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading this gay shit. infinity war shoulda just ended this way tbh. with rim jobs and happy bois


End file.
